Mobius
by Lyn Experience
Summary: Hiatus till further notice.
1. Chapter 1

_So I know that I already have a story named Mobius, but to be honest I lost interest in it and simply put I didn't like how things were going... I took a bit of time off from writing and waited till now. I'm a bit more confident in my writing now and I am not gonna lie... I really love the idea for this pokemon fic, so here I am again. _

_This is the prolouge. Chapters will be much longer and i'll try to update two or once a week after I get enough characters. For more details go to my profile. _

_**~Story Begins~ **_

**The region of Mobius. **

**Discovered about a hundred years ago the giant landmass quite literally came out of nowhere, residing itself between the ocean that separates Kanto and Johto from Unova. With it's coming many natural disasters occured around the world, tsunamis and giant floods affected Unova, Johto, and Kanto. Tornados raged the region of Hoenn, leaving millions without homes which include both pokemon and humans alike. Many dormant volcanos suddenly awoke in the region of Sinnoh, while the eruptions destroyed many cities the landmass of Sinnoh grew some more from the dry lava. Kalos was a bit more lucky, the damages caused by the earthquakes were nothing compared to the destruction everyone else had gotten. **

**A few days after it's discovery, the Pokemon Association with the help of the International Police sent a small group of skilled agents and trainers to the still nameless region. The goal was simple, see the geography of the region and if there was any life on it. **

**It was a region which was full of deserts, rocky fields, and mountains, a giant lake was right in the middle of the region and many rivers which had the lake as it's core crossed all over the region. A large forest surrounded the lake, trees easily the size of a small skyscraper. **

**No life found. **

**After annoucing that it was inhabitable the Pokemon Association quickly began at work, they began to fill the region with many species of pokemon and started construction for cities and towns. They also began planting seeds for trees to grow over the rest of the region. In a good twenty years the region was finally ready to take in people. **

**Filled with farms, new cites and towns the region had many immigrants from other regions who wished to live there. While most were people who had been unable to recover from the natural disasters which happened years ago, there was a few number of individuals who sought new adventures.**

**It took a good fourty years to finally get a region league set up, mostly because the species of pokemon put in there still hadn't risen in number yet. But the difficultness of finding gym leaders, elite four, and a champion stood in there way too.**

**The Mobius Region League or "The Emerald Championship" has eight gym leaders, four elite... four, and a champion. Each city and town are decently populated, with some housing a gym or a contest hall. **

**Unlike other leagues though, only three of the many who are able to collect all the badges can fight against the elite four and champion. **

**While many switches on gym leaders and elite four have been made over the decades, _the champion hasn't been beaten once._**

_**~ Saint Maria: December 31st ~ **_

"Leo,"

Light blue eyes looked towards another set of matching colored eyes, but much smaller and with a hint of irritation to them. The call came from a young looking girl, from first look she looked to be nine years old and had semi-long flatten black hair reaching down her back with some bangs on her forehead. She had pale skin and had what seemed to be a school uniform... the male a few feet away recognized it as the Saint Maria Elementary school uniform.

Asuka Escobar was right at the entrance of a small room, her back laying against the opened door with arms crossed as she awaited some sort of sign that her older brother had heard her. Glancing around the room she found it surprisingly neat and tidy... unlike it usual state she tended to find it in the bed was done, the single window giving a clear view of the night sky was sparkling clean along with the wooden floors, as well as dirty clothes separated from clean ones.

Standing at 5'7" with jet, messy spiky black hair reaching down to his ears Leo looked away from the mirror for a second but kept his hands moving around his hair, almost as if he was trying to neat it up a bit. Glancing at his sister for a second, a single eye cocked up the blue eyed male opened his mouth, "What, Asuka?" right now the male had on a plain black t-shirt with a pair of blue jeans and some black sneakers.

The younger sibling reached down to her pocket and was about to pull something, but she suddenly hesistated for a moment before letting out a yawn and crossing her arms again. Asuka shook her head before looking at him, "Nevermind,"

She only paused for a moment before speaking up again, "So are you really going to the lab tomorrow?"

Upon hearing that Leo smirked lightly, "Of course younger sister of mine! I need a pokedex and a new pokemon to begin my journey to be the best coordinator, after all," he walked over and ruffled her hair before walking away into the house.

Asuka followed him, "You might be a better coordinator if you have your own pokemon, rather than using mom's to practice those silly contest act-"

"Asuka!"

She was startled for a moment from the sudden shout before bumping into her older brother, not realizing that he had stopped walking, "What?"

"Contests are not silly, dear sister of mine," Leo turned to look at her before ruffling her hair again, annoying Asuka once again, "It takes much more skill then battling and a lot more creativity then battling, you know!"

"Sure sure," the younger female muttered.

Leo was about to say something else before he heard the front door open. Turning around to look at the entrace of their home both siblings smiled widely when they saw their mother come into the house. Akira Kurono had her police uniform on, with short black hair neatly under her police cap and blue eyes looking exhausted, yet she forced up a smile when her two children ran towards her and embraced her in a hug.

"Leo, Asuka, did you eat dinner already?"

"No," Leo had already broken away from the hug, scratching the back of his head and smiling sheepishly. It bothered his mom to no end when they didn't eat dinner, "I was gonna make dinner but Asuka didn't let me. She kept on insisting to wait for you,"

"Of course," Asuka added in her usual blunt tone, "What kind of kids don't wait for their mother to eat dinner with them?"

"Kids that have a mother who comes very late from work," Akira cutted in, shaking her head before taking off her police cap and walking over to the kitchen. Leo was about to close the door, seeing as Asuka followed their mother to help make dinner but when he tried to he felt something block it from closing all the way.

Seeing a large, oranged furred dog and a giant brown bug with two horns walk in Leo laughed nervously, "Sorry, I forgot about you guys,"

Pinsir simply grunted while the arcanine let out a large bark before they headed into the living room, the only place where there was enough space for the two pokemon. The fifteen year old closed the door once they walked in and made his way into the kitchen, sitting down on a small table before smiling lightly.

Asuka was grabbing all sorts of ingredients, their mother to the side while Asuka kept on insisting that she would cook dinner and that she could just sit down. For anyone that knew Asuka this scene would be strange... she was usually blunt, easily annoyed, and didn't seem pleased with anything. Unlike their older sister Annie.

Speaking about Annie... she hasn't sent a letter this month.

"Leo! Get three plates," his mother suddenly shouted at him, making the male break out of his thoughts before standing up and walking over to the cabinet which held all the plates. To be honest he found himself a bit annoyed that this would be the last time he would have a good dinner... seeing as he would be leaving Saint Maria tomorrow.

Yeah... he wouldn't be seeing his family for a while. Neither Asuka, his mom, and even Arcanine as well as Pinsir. With that thought in mind Leo grabbed the three plates and turned to the table to set them down.

Asuka and mom were having a small discussion about something, most likely his sister wanted to do operate the stove. If he looked to the side Leo could see his mom's two pokemon chatting in their own simple, yet at the same time complicated langue.

'_I wonder how things would be like if you were here... Annie... Dad,' _Leo found himself a bit surprised from that last part. Shaking his head because he didn't want to think too much on it Leo sat down on his chair, but this time he felt something in one of his back pockets.

Oh right, Rave.

Just as a whole bunch of thoughts were about to flood his mind his little set a cup of ramen noodles in front of him, making him sigh, "Ramen? Why the plates then?"

"She was gonna give us something else, but I convinced her that would take too long sooo..." Asuka figured he got the message, which he did. Leo let out a sigh in annoyance, but smiled lightly as he picked up the three plates and put them back in their place before joining his family for dinner.

Tomorrow... he would finally have the chance to become the best coordinator this world has ever seen.


	2. Chapter 2

**The first official chapter, most of the characters accepted will be making an intro this chapter but don't worry if yours doesn't appear... if not this chapter they will appear in the next one.**

**Also, I will be accepting one more male and another female.**

_**Saint Maria: January 1**__**st**__**, 6:00 in the morning**_

With the sun barely rising, the calm waves hitting Clamperl Beach and the chatter of wingul as they flew all over was all that could be heard throughout town. But like every New Year the town was a mess... party banners, wrappers, and all kinds of bottles were all over the main plaza. While the new year meant the Emerald Championship came to an end it also the meant the start for the Grand Festival in Gold Beach City, if you were a coordinator with every single ribbon from each contest hall in Mobius you would be able to participate.

Like every morning it remained silent for a while, but as the sun began to get higher into the sky people started to wake up; it had been wild last night but work needed to get done. Like always fishermen were the ones to get up first, at the small docks a few feet away from town fishing boats started to operate and began to make their way into the ocean.

The second set of people to wake up were people who ran many of the local shops in town, the early pidgey got the caterpie after all. After them everybody else woke up.

Apart from the talk from last night's ruckus that came from the New Year's party, many were talking about the results from the Emerald Championship. Like usual the three trainers that would have the chance to fight the elite four were not from this region, foreigners for short. All of them had conquered other three leagues, so they had ton of experience compared to other competitors.

While the three trainers showed to be clearly powerful, mostly everybody was putting their money on the "Silver Knight." A nickname given to the competitor by the crowd, from common logic he had the best chance to actually get past the elite four but an even slighter chance to beat the champion... yet he had the most chance to acquire victory than the other two competitors, perhaps because of the legendary pokemon he had on his team? The fights were scheduled to happen on Monday 12th, once the grand festival was over and done with till next year.

But enough of that.

Today is the day where the local professor, Jack Bailstone, will be giving out free starter pokemon along with a pokedex to anybody that's going to start their journey. All they needed to do to get them was to go to the lab before the 13th hour, pretty simple right?

It was simple, but not simple enough for Leo... or at least this is what was going through Asuka's mind. He has never been known to be an early riser; this was usually because he was up all night playing his silly video games and tended not to sleep till 1 in the morning... so he always woke up past noon.

Unlike her older brother she always woke up early, earlier then her mother even... in terms of minutes anyways. When the younger girl got into the shower after her mother, the older female tended to be gone by the time she got out... always leaving two plates of eggs for them to eat for breakfast.

Today would be like no other day. Once Asuka was done with her shower she would change into her uniform and once that was done the younger sibling would go wake up her older brother, who was probably snoozing away at this very moment. After that she would eat the breakfast their mother had made and wake up Arcanine, who was sleeping in the living room, so she could be taken to the trainer school at the other side of the small town.

Not before brushing her teeth of course.

Like always the morning schedule played out swiftly, that is till Asuka went to wake up her brother.

"Leo!" she knocked on the door furiously for the hundredth time, annoyance clearly seen in her light blue eyes. Sure it took a few knocks to get that dork to wake up... but not this many! To be honest she would have already given up on trying waking up Leo but their mother had left her a note, stating that she counted on Asuka to make sure her older brother woke up early so he could get over to the lab on time.

So like the good daughter she was, Asuka would make sure that Leo woke up... even if she had to forcefully enter the room and throw a bucket of cold water on him.

With that thought in mind she grabbed the handle to the door and turned it, opening it with a loud creak. With the door all the way opened she expected to see her brother's usual mess, with the room completely dark and the sibling in question in bed snoozing away with no worries whatsoever.

That's why Asuka couldn't help but gasp in surprise when she saw the room sparking clean, curtains fully opened letting in the morning sunlight. The bed was done; all of his clothes neatly put away where they belong and the floor free of any dust or trash of any kind. Slowly walking in the younger sibling was wondering what one earth was going, had someone abducted her brother? Did Leo go insane from playing so much video games? As her eyes scanned the room she suddenly spotted a note on the nearby desk.

Walking over she quickly grabbed the note and began to read it, hoping that there was some kind of explanation to this phenomenon in it.

_Dear Mom and Asuka_

_I woke up early and made my own breakfast, since I'll be gone for more or less a year I cleaned my room. I will send a letter at the end of every month, like Annie, even though I can call you anytime with my pokenav... but for some reasons you like letters more mom._

_Anyways love you both! Take care of Asuka, mom, and you dear sister of mine take care of our mother. _

_Tell Arcanine and Pinsir i'll miss them too!_

_Sincerely, Leo_

_P.S I took some food... but I got some fruits too! So don't worry... I won't just be eating burritos and cups of ramen._

Quickly reading the letter, Asuka found herself a bit impressed he _**could **_wake up early if he wanted to. But maybe she was just trying to distract herself from thinking about how foolish she must have looked knocking on the door like some enraged vigoroth.

"Ah well... time to eat breakfast," she left the letter where she had found it and walked over to the kitchen, hearing the light snores of Arcanine in the living. Pinsir left with mom, but the large orange furred dog always needed some extra sleep. The little girl didn't know why their mother insisted of having it out of his pokeball, after all he took a lot of room because of its size. But the older woman insisted that she preferred for her pokemon to be out, so she even went out of her way to make the main entrance bigger so Arcanine could fit through it.

"Mom has two pokemon... and even Leo is going to be getting a rare starter soon!" she spoke out when she swallowed the last big of egg. She got up and walked over to the dish washer to clean her plate before speaking her mind again, "And all I have is this pokemon Leo gave me that, I should add, doesn't even come out of its pokeball!"

Most kids at her school already had pokemon, which is why she would never say that directly to her brother. Having a pokemon was better than having no pokemon, even if that pokemon was scared of coming out of her pokeball. Asuka had decided that just as he was going to hand the trapinch back to Leo last night...

By the time she finished that thought the girl had already put away her dish, walking over to the doorway she whistled for Arcanine and began to open the door. Like every morning the large dog walked with heavy footsteps towards the main entrance of the house, and like always it managed to fit through the door by an inch.

Climbing onto the large fire type's back, Asuka muttered school into his ear before the fully evolved pokemon rocketed away into town. Grabbing onto the arcanine's mane, hair, or whatever you want to call it so she wouldn't fall the girl began wondering if Leo had woken up early, where was he now?

_**~Saint Maria Lab: 9:00 ~**_

"Professor..."

Jack groaned in annoyance and raised his arms lightly to shoo away whoever was moving him, it wasn't rough or anything but to a sloth like him he didn't like being woken up forcefully in any way whatsoever.

"Professor..."

Figuring that his assistant wouldn't give up, the young professor sighed in annoyance before opening his eyes; revealing his ocean blue orbs only for them to be shut down again, the sunlight coming in from the various windows around the lab stung his eyes a bit.

"Profess-"

"Don't worry Miss Midori, I'm awake already," Jack spoke out to his assistant, "Just give me a few moments,"

Midori's chocolate brown eyes looked at the professor through her black rimmed glasses, a hint of doubt showing in them, but in the end she decided to take his word and get to work already. The fourteen year old had arrived an hour ago and like always cleaned up the lab a bit, this morning it was a bit more messier because of the party the professor had for new year's last night but she didn't mind... she did wonder slightly how someone like him became a professor, but that's it.

Today like usual she had her shoulder length dark brown hair held back by some hairclips; her clothing consisted of a purple blouse that was under her grey jacket, which was left opened as it wasn't as cold today. Also because of the rare warm weather today she was also wearing a grey skirt that reached down to her knees, along with some black flats and white knee-high socks. She was a bit short, and still had a bit of a child appearance so the teen girl often got mistaken for being a tad younger than she actually is.

Sitting down on a desk chair the young assistant pulled out her laptop and began to look for the files she had been working on yesterday, to be honest the fourteen year old found them a bit boring because it was about the clamperl on the beach nearby but work was work. By the time the brown haired girl found the files she had been looking for she heard the professor already up and moving about in the background, muttering something she couldn't quite hear right every now and then.

Just as she was about to get to work, Midori felt something nudge her leg. Successfully attracting her attention the young girl smiled a bit when she saw Bulbasaur's face looking up at her, like usual asking to be petted or something of the like.

She had received the pokemon two weeks ago from Jack, the older man telling her that it was a present from him as he didn't really pay her or anything. The two still didn't quite know each other well, but Midori quickly figured out that the grass-type really liked to be petted, hugged, etc. Also that the small dino would put on a bit of an attitude if he was ignored.

The fourteen year old petted his head lightly before going back to her laptop. She could feel Bulbasaur lay down and cuddle up right next to her leg while she began typing in some info into the files... going back to where she had left off.

_'I wish he hadn't given me half a day off yesterday' _Midori didn't really need any time off, and found herself a bit bored whenever Jack gave her some. It's not like she had friends or anything to spend the free time with, since the fourteen year old isn't exactly the social type Midori never really bothered to make friends with any kids in town... but it's not like she was shy or anything, the young teen just didn't understand socialization as well as others, especially with those her own age. So the free time she was given was usually spent lying around home, working on her own projects.

Then out of nowhere, they heard someone knock the door.

Midori was suddenly reminded that like every beginning of a new year Jack gave out pokedexes and starting pokemon to anybody that showed up before noon, but of course there was a bit more to it than that though before she could rethink the whole process Jack walked over to the door and opened it, because of her location she couldn't see exactly see who it was so the girl couldn't tell if it was a local or someone from a different city.

"Oh, hey there young lady," Jack smiled a bit, "You here for your pokemon and pokedex?"

"Yup!" Midori heard the enthusiastic response, instantly realizing it was probably someone her own age from the tone of her voice. It sounded young but not kid young.

"Come in please, I'll get them in a moment." the professor replied in the same cheerful tone before walking over to a door that lead to other rooms in the lab and disappearing inside it. By the time the man disappeared the girl that had knocked on the door walked in, giving Midori a full view of the teen. From first look she seemed a bit shorter than herself... which kind of surprised her, but while she was shorter she didn't seem like a child, the other female actually had a hint of maturity to her appearance.

With long dirty blonde hair reaching her thighs, her hazel eyes scanned the lab in curiosity till they landed on Midori. She had a slim build with a bit of tanned skin; right now she had on a long sleeved black short that reached a bit above her belly button. Below she had on Capri, dark blue jeans with black converse boots to finish it off.

The fourteen year old girl also noticed a wrist watch on her left hand, but her attention was drawn to the white and brown knapsack hanging off from her... she noted it seemed a bit full, but if it was heavy or not the other girl didn't show any signs of it.

"Oh, hi!" she waved at Midori, but quickly began brushing her long hair with her hands, making her look a bit shy, "I'm here for my pokemon... my name is K-" it seemed she hesitated for a moment before responding with a big smile,

"Just call me Ro,"

Midori had no idea how she managed to get into a conversation, but she didn't want to seem rude so the chocolate brown eyed girl replied back, "I'm Midori, pleased to meet you,"

Just as Ro was about to reply the blonde's gaze suddenly went down to Midori's feet, noticing something blue and green move the fifteen year old's eyes widened when she saw the bulbasaur waking up; probably because he had noticed a new presence in the room.

"How adorable!" the fifteen year old blonde squealed out, rushing towards to where the bulbasaur was at she got on her knees and began to pet the small dino, which the grass-type seemed to love. The pokemon didn't know who this person was or what she was doing here, but this human was okay in his book.

Midori simply cocked up an eyebrow, but didn't say for a while before this Ro person asked who he was, "It's my pokemon, the professor gifted him to me a few weeks ago,"

"Are you also going on a journey?" Ro looked up to face Midori, hazel eyes watching her as she awaited the brown haired girl's answer.

Midori shook her head, "No,"

"Why?" Ro questioned, not even trying to hide the curiosity in her tone.

The younger female began to feel a bit uncomfortable, to be honest it had been a while since someone asked her these kinds of questions... "I don't really feel like going on one," she stated bluntly.

"Why?" once again her voice was full of curiosity, the teen's hazel eyes almost sparkling as they met with Midori's own chocolate brown ones.

The assistant pushed up her glasses with a single finger, trying to think of some answer to that question. To be honest the young teen had never thought of going on a journey, the idea itself didn't seem that bad from first thought... after all she could get plenty of knowledge that could help her become a pokemon researcher, the dream she had ever since she could remember. Many others dreamed of becoming the strongest trainer, the most famed coordinator, but not her.

"Midori?"

Midori's chocolate brown eyes blinked a few times as she got called out of her thoughts. Looking over to the other female who had now stood up she shook her head before speaking, "Apologies... what was the question again?"

Just as Ro was about to remind Midori what she was supposed to answer the two teenagers suddenly heard footsteps, they turned to see Jack coming out of the door that lead to rooms where not even Midori has gone to with a grey box.

"Here you go miss... Hamada?" the older man spoke while looking at a description on top of the small box.

"Yup! That's me!" Ro spoke out happily, walking over to where the professor was standing at she was carefully handed the box, which the blonde teen opened in a matter of seconds.

Inside it was a simple pokeball with a small flame on it and a pokedex, which the teen immedeatly took into her hands. While Ro analyzed the two items in her hands with curiosity of that of an eight year old Jack began explaining the basics of a pokedex: you could check your pokemon stat's like health, attack power, and even contest stats. It also held your trainer id, so you didn't even have to go to Gold Beach to get one; it also recorded the badges as well as ribbons you've gotten so far. But the most important feature was the most obvious one... it's large database on all the species of pokemon. It held basic facts, like where it could be found in Mobius and natural predators/enemies of said pokemon.

By the time Jack finished his small lecture, he looked down at the short teen and wasn't sure if she had been paying attention... she was still looking at the two items in amazement, almost as if she had never seen something of the like before.

"Questions?"

"Nope," Ro quickly answered.

Jack let out a chuckle, "Alright," walking over to a random box in the corner of the lab the older man kneeled down, grabbing five pokeballs before going back to where Ro was standing at; by now she had put away both items he had given her.

"For being patient and such a sweetheart... here are five pokeballs," this was Jack, always having a soft spot for the opposite gender. He was worse with those his own age... but generally he was a nice fellow with any female.

"Thank you!" she took the five pokeballs with a smile, and with that she excused herself to leave the lab and go on her way. Once she reached the door of the lab she turned the handle, but before leaving she called out to Midori, which the younger girl turned to look at,

"Later Midori!" Ro waved at her frantically, a smile still etched on her face, "Hopefully we meet again!"

The brown haired teen had no idea how to respond to that, a bit awkwardly she waved back and let out a painfully obvious forceful laugh, "Yeah... hopefully," she pushed up her glasses with a single finger once again as the older blonde left through the door, going who knows where.

Jack scratched the back of his head before going over to one of the many paper stacks on his desk, seemingly going back to whatever he was doing. Midori decided to do the same, but before that she petted Bulbasaur's head (who had not moved from his spot) before going back to typing again.

Then out of nowhere Jack said something she never imagined he would say, "You know, if you want to go on a journey I don't mind,"

Midori shook her head, "I'm fine as I am right now," the fourteen year old replied, never once stopping her typing.

The older male shook his head in annoyance, "I know you want to become a researcher like me, but that doesn't mean you can't go on a journey,"

"I know," the brown haired girl replied bluntly.

"When I was your age I went on a journey myself, along with two friends of mine," while he spoke the male began looking at many documents, seemingly scanning them for something. The thought that he sounded like an old man when he said that crossed his mind, but it surprisingly didn't bother him as much as it used to.

"You've told me that already professor," Midori adjusted her glasses with her pinky before sighing, "I just don't feel like going on a journey... I don't think it's my thing," for once in the young teen's life she was questioning if that was true or not. Did she really think that? Or did she simply want to stop this attempt to a heart-to-heart conversation Jack was trying to make.

With that the conversation ended. Midori was a bit relived when Jack didn't say anything else. Little did she know though that the older male was actually lost in his own thoughts, thinking back on those days where he and his two friends traveled together.

They seemed so far into the past, almost as if they had never existed. The tragedy that had befallen one of them... his first love... he could still feel his heart hurt from the pain he had experienced on that day, what had driven her to do such madness? 

"Echo... how on earth did we let this happen to her Kaito?" the older man muttered to himself, forgetting for a moment that Midori was only a few feet away.

Upon hearing Jack mutter something that she didn't quite understand, Midori gazed over to him and spoke, "Professor? Did you say something?"

"Oh," Jack jumped a bit once he heard Midori's voice, but he quickly shook his head and replied back, "No, it's nothing Miss Midori,"

_**In Town: 10:05**_

Ro gleefully walked all over the small town. It had been more or less an hour since the young teen had left the lab and just like she planned the short blonde was about to make her way towards the nearest route, but she suddenly heard a ruckus coming from town.

Like always her curiosity got the best of her and she quickly headed back, following the noise that got louder and louder as she got closer. Soon enough the short blonde discovered a small, street band playing right in the main plaza.

After that every little thing caught her attention, wherever it was some delicious scent or some other street act for some reason the fifteen year found herself a bit fascinated by many random things. Sure she always ran into similar things back at Gold Beach... but there was something different about these smells and about these noises that caught her attention.

Just as she was about to go in the direction of what seemingly was some docks, Ro bumped into someone. The blonde hadn't paid much attention to the people around her, so she didn't notice the nearby individual. In a matter of seconds her shy side began to kick in... yeah she was bubbly, loved exploring, but whenever she met someone new the young teen couldn't help but grow a bit shy.

"I'm sorry," she quickly apologized. Taking a good look at the person she had bump into Ro could quickly tell two things: One, the person was a male. Two, he was much taller and seemed older than her.

The older teenager had pale skin, with thin almond shaped eyes that were ruby red in color looking down at Ro, his medium length ebony hair reached his chin and kind of framed his face. Right now he had on a black polo with the top buttons undone. Below he had on some black slacks and shoes... Ro also noted he had on similar colored gloves.

This guy really loved black.

Ro waited for some sort of reply from him, but he didn't say anything for a while making her a bit nervous; luckily he spoke "Its fine," and just like that the male continued on his way.

Ro couldn't help but sigh in relief, so much like the male the short blonde quickly made her way towards the docks. She had seen the ocean many times, but it was always from the same view and there was always lots of amounts of noise so she couldn't quite enjoy seeing the ocean peacefully.

_**Outskirts of Town: 10:30**_

Leo's light blue eyes looked over at the stone tablet a few feet away, with some letters inscribed on it and a cross at the top it was easy to tell this was a grave. A bunch of withered flowers where all over the place, from one look one could tell the youngest flowers from the oldest as some more withered then others.

Right now he was in a part of the nearby forest nobody came to; it was so well hidden by all the plants and trees that it was only known to Leo and his family. The fifteen year old male had a lot of good memories of this place; he used to come here a lot to play with his pokemon as a younger kid. That had been a few years ago though, now going to this certain location always saddened him.

Right now the raven haired male was holding a boutique of flowers in hand, like every year he had come to visit his old pal... Starly. Ever since that day he came every year, on the same day he had made the worst choice of his life. Carefully laying down the flowers Leo chuckled lightly, and soon enough began speaking to himself... or that's how it would seem like to anyone. Yet to Leo he wasn't speaking to himself... no, to the young teen he was speaking with his old pal.

"Hey Starly, been a while huh?"

The fifteen year old went through the same steps he did whenever he visited Starly; the male would talk about all that had occurred this year and what he was planning to do next. Almost as if his old buddy was right next to him Leo began chatting on, on, and on about the things in his life. Like how he was leaving town today, or how Asuka was doing in school.

But then eventually the guilt would get the best of him, till this day he couldn't forgive himself... he just couldn't. It was _**his **_fault Starly was gone, because he had been a cocky brat that thought himself invincible just cause he had been the best out of his class...

Tears began rolling down his eyes, but the fifteen year old did no attempt to calm down, "I'm sorry... really, really sorry..." Leo found himself chocking on his words a bit, "If I hadn't decided to face him... you would still be here, with Rave and Lee right by our side..."

No matter how many times he said sorry nothing would change, Leo knew that very well. No matter how much he wished to turn back time to stop himself from fighting that masked opponent, Leo couldn't. Starly was dead, and there was nothing that would change that.

What had Starly been thinking when he got hit by that poison jab? How much pain did Starly go through just because he had an idiot for a trainer? Starly probably hated him the moment the flying type had realized his fate...

"...sorry, I got a bit emotional there," Leo quickly wiped his eyes, "I'll become the best coordinator in your honor Starly... I promise,"

With that Leo grabbed some things out of his pocket; some tape and what seemed to be a photograph. Taking a piece of tape the fifteen year old taped the old photograph onto the stone tablet revealing a much younger Leo with a heracross, trapinch, and a starly in the picture. The bug-type was wrestling his trainer while the other pokemon played about, seemingly the ground type trying to catch the starly.

Reaching down for his backpack which he had laid down on the grassy floor, Leo put it on and smiled brightly, "Don't worry, I'll be coming next year! But I'll have more exciting things to tell ya, so just wait okay?" the light blue eyed male turned for a bit to face the grave, but soon enough he started running to the general direction of town.

He was in no rush; taking out his pokenav Leo could clearly see he still had plenty of time before the 13th hour. Though that didn't mean he wanted to be the last one to arrive for his pokemon and dex.


	3. Chapter 3

**If you want to send a female oc, I will be taking one more.**

**Okay, that's all. Anyways thanks for the reviews! They really really motivate me, and I'm learning what I need to work on as a writer.**

**_Outskirts of town: 10:35_**

"Viral... are you sure about this?"

The one that had spoken was a male that was more or less in his twenties. But anyone that wasn't with him wouldn't be able to tell as his whole body was hidden by a large black cloak; it concealed his whole body apart from the face, that part was hidden to the world by a mask... its design made it look like a noctowl face.

This currently nameless individual was only one member of the small, masked group located in the forest. Counting him there were six members in total, all wearing different kind of masks along with the same black cloak that covered them from head-to-toe.

Viral, the one with the mask that was designed out to make it seem like some kind of pixelized glitch with only two holes to see spoke, "Yes I am, Owl. Do you realize how long we waited the moment we could serve the arcadia?!" surprisingly, Viral's voice sounded a bit feminime.

"Of course but-"

"But nothing Owl!" Viral turned to look at Owl, not doing anything to hide her annoyance the masked female continued, "If you aren't sure about this... just leave! We can't have anyone ruining our first mission for the arcadia!"

Owl was taken aback by that comment. To be honest out of everyone here he was the less passionate about the cult they were in; only joining because the leader, Viral, seemed pretty cute Owl had no interest in worshipping an old organization that was most likely just some old tale.

He didn't mind being part of the small group, while they went on and on about the day this supposed "Masked Arcadia" would unite everyone was a generally nice fellow. In fact if it wasn't for Viral supposedly getting in contact with a head of the long gone organization (who was most likely some prank caller that got her number) and getting this crazy mission... maybe Owl wouldn't be thinking of quitting.

"Viral, do you realize what you're about to do?" it seemed the female would never listen to reason, but Owl wasn't about to give up... yet, "You and these guys are about to rob a P.A funded research facility! In the least, we will be sentenced to one of the lower levels of Battery City's prison for 8 years!

Viral didn't speak a word for a few seconds. The masked female's silence seem like a good thing in Owl's view, but then the idea she would quit this ridiculous plan was thrown out of the window when she spoke,

"For the arcadia, I will do anything! No matter the consequences, **_we_** will do as we are told," and with that Viral began to make her way out of the forest and towards the nearby clearing that had a small hill; at the top of a small hill stood a small, plain looking lab.

Owl was left by himself as the rest of the members began to follow Viral. The male gritted his teeth for a moment before he turned around and headed the opposite way.

**_Saint Maria: Docks, 11:00_**

"The ocean... it's so beautiful from here!"

Ro closed her hazel eyes as she felt a soft, refreshing breeze passed through the docks, with the sound of the waves hitting the beach in the background the short blonde couldn't help but smile peacefully. She loved water, wherever it was a simple lake or a mighty ocean the blonde would usually end up swimming in one... either that or find some other way to enjoy the cool water.

The short teen reached into her large knapsack before taking out two pokeballs; one of them was the pokeball given to her by the professor and the other one, which already seemed quite old, was a pokeball she had from some time ago. Ro started to frown a bit; seeing the older pokeball would always put her a bit under the weather. It wasn't because of the pokemon inside it, but because of the memories it would bring her...

Her smile slowly began to disappear as she looked at the pokeball, "Ryo... I'm finally going to see the world. Just like we always talked about," the blonde girl gripped both pokeballs in her hands tighter, her sadden expression changing to that of determination as she spoke these words. She couldn't afford to get depress now; after all as soon as she left this town her long, long journey would finally commence!

This is where her story would begin.

Ro shook her head lightly after that thought fully processed, just remembering that before she left to go see the world that her parents had asked the teen in question to go back to Gold Beach... so they could give her a proper farewell... and by that they meant a farewell party.

_'But after that my journey will officially begin!' _the blonde thought happily. Taking advantage that nobody was around she began to move around the docks, jumping up in the air in pure glee every now and then.

This was happening!

_'I'm actually going to travel the world!' _

With that thought the fifteen year old did one, huge leap into the air... the short blonde was attempting to mimic a scene from this very cheesy movie that she had seen a few days back; said scene in question was of this girl jumping in the air incredibly high and doing a fist bump while shouting "I'm going to do this!"

It was very childish and stupid, Ro knew that very well. But because of the overly happy mood she was in...

Ro was reminded how much of a bad idea doing this had been when she landed and immediately lost her balance. The blonde tried to gain her balance back by sticking out her hands to the side, but the young teen realized it was too late as the water below the docks came into view.

To be honest the only reason screamed out was because the blonde felt someone grab her by the hand and with force pull her up before she hit the water.

"Wow, that was close one huh?" the person that had saved her spoke, from the tone it seemed to belong to a female.

"T-thank you," Ro turned to look at her savior, while she could swim pretty well and had been in no real danger to begin with this person had just saved her from walking home in wet clothes! Oddly enough, she hadn't brought with her any change of clothes in this ridiculously full knapsack.

Well, you learn from your mistakes right?

When Ro turned to look at the other female the blonde quickly realized she was a lot shorter than the other girl, but by know she was kind of used to pretty much everyone being taller than her. Noting more of the other teen's physical features Ro noted that she seemed around her age... with pale, blonde hair tied up into a high pony tail the teen girl had a pair of mint green orbs for eyes that were looking down at the shorter girl and vanilla skin; the fellow blonde also had a scar on her left cheek, which gave the girl a bit of a delinquent look.

"No problem shrimp," the pale blonde spoke with a toothy grin. Both of her hands were tucked into the pockets of her red, leather jacket that hugged her figure much like the black jeans she had on below. With black combat boots covering her feet, this person really did fit the delinquent role.

At least from the ones Ro had seen back at Gold Beach.

Deciding to ignore the fact this person had called her shrimp, Ro smiled brightly and bowed, "No really! Thank you! May I please know your name?"

"Just call me Liz," the taller teen spoke as she poked her nose.

Looking up Ro also decided to ignore the fact she was poking her nose strangely casually, "Pleased to meet you Liz! I'm Korianne, Aurora Hama-"

"Before you continue, just tell me your nickname... I'm not going to remember all that," Liz cut in before the shorter blonde continued. She had taken out the finger that she had been poking her nose with by now.

"O-oh, Ro is fine," the shorter teen quickly replied.

Liz cocked up an eyebrow, "Ro?"

"Yes," Ro nodded.

"Simple, I like it!"

"Thank you,"

"So why were you jumping around like a fool to begin with?" Liz decided to change the subject, but to be honest she was quite curious about that... it's not every day you see someone that isn't one of the local fishermen dancing around the docks as if they had some bug type crawling around in their pants.

Ro blushed lightly and began to run a hand through her long, blonde hair, "I was happy... plus I didn't think anyone could see me,"

Upon hearing that Liz started laughing out loud, "Really? You can clearly see the docks from a few spots in town... one of them has many people passing by every day,"

Upon hearing that Ro started to blush heavier from embarrassment and suddenly found the floor very interesting, "I-i didn't know that," the short blonde let out a nervous laugh.

Ro was just about to speak when Liz beat her to it, "Okay, I know you are probably wondering why i'm here? Right?"

Before the shorter blonde could answer the taller female continued, "Don't be afraid, I'm pretty good at the guessing game," Liz reassured her while she had her hands held out, the taller blonde's tone made her sound totally serious, "Anyways... I came to wait for a friend of mine,"

"Oh, I see..." Ro spoke, the embarrassment from before fading away by the second.

Liz scratched the back of her head, "Yup, he was already supposed to be here... but I don't see him," to help her point Liz looked around real quick, almost as if she was expecting for this friend of hers to pop out of nowhere, "Maybe you scared him off with all that jumping of yours," Liz' mint green eyes looked at Ro accusingly.

The short girl in question let out a few nervous chuckles, but before she could talk Liz beat her to it... again, "Kidding, if I know him as well as I think I do he would have probably run over to ya."

Oh, he was that kind of guy, "Is he a flirt?" the shorter blonde asked as she looked up at Liz.

Liz seemed amused by the question as she held in a laugh, "He tries to be... but he's not," when she finished that sentence the blonde didn't even try to hold in her laugh, "I don't think he's ever had an actual conversation with any girls apart from me, his sister, and mother!"

Upon hearing that Ro couldn't help but giggle, "I see... what's his name? Out of curiosity,"

The shorter blonde waited for the taller teen to stop laughing, which went on for a few more seconds before finally through forced breathes she answered, "It's... Leo!" growing a bit calmer after stating that, Liz continued to talk, "After we got our pokemon and dex from the professor, we were supposed to meet here to get some fishing rods from this guy I know,"

"You got a pokedex and a pokemon too?" Ro suddenly spoke, a bit surprised that she wasn't the only one remaining in town after receiving them.

Liz looked down at Ro, "Uh, yeah. I got a mudkip... you?"

Upon hearing that the shorter blonde reached back into her knapsack to grab the pokeball she had been given by the professor, "I got a charmander!" Ro replied happily as she showed the other female the pokeball in which said pokemon was resting in.

"Cool, we should have a battle sometime!" Liz copied the shorter blonde and took out her mudkip's pokeball, "But I'm pretty good, best in town if not for scar face,"

"Scar face?" Ro asked with an eyebrow raised.

Liz nodded, "Yeah, this kid with a huge scar covering his left eye..." the taller blonde had put away her pokeball by now, a frown began to form on her face, "He's such a fuc-erm, that kid is really annoying," thanking Arceus above that she managed to stop herself on time, Liz continued, "But I have to admit... he's strong. Though i'm pretty sure I know someone that is stronger,"

"Who?" Oddly enough Ro just kept finding herself asking for more info, the short blonde found everything Liz has said so far pretty interesting.

Liz grinned lightly, "I'm afraid I am too prideful to say," further explaining that it was already hard enough to admit that this scar face was a lot stronger than her, Liz decided to change the subject and instead ask this chick some questions.

'_Leo better get here soon...'_

**_Saint Maria: Lab 11:20_**

"Hey Midori," Jack called out to his assistant, in which said fourteen year old turned to look at the older male, "I'm leaving for a bit, going to town to buy some groceries,"

Midori nodded towards the professor before returning to her laptop, hearing the door close behind her the young teen figured he wouldn't be back for a while. For the past few hours most of the trainers had already arrived to get their pokemon and dex, she saw some familiar faces and some unfamilar ones but like always Jack had taken care of given each one what they had come for.

The one that had stood out the most was definitely the kid who thought was a ninja... "What a weirdo," she muttered to herself, yet not losing the rhythm of her typing. Midori didn't meant to be mean, but it was in her nature to be oh so painfully blunt and honest like that.

Shaking her head lightly the short teen decided not to think on that anymore; Midori was in a pretty good mood right now because she had the lab all to herself for a good few hours, that and almost completing the information on the files regarding the clamperl she had been working on all morning. If Midori kept up the pace she was in then soon enough the young teen would get to work on the good stuff!

The files that Jack didn't let her touch... and maybe after completing these files she would finally get to see what was behind that steel door. Where did it lead too? What was in it? Midori has been working at this lab ever since she moved from Lumiose City a few years ago and never, not even once has she able to get the slightest peak into that secret room.

The short teen blinked a few times before looking at her laptop screen. Reading the part she was at Midori couldn't help but face palm a bit; by accident the brown haired girl had typed her thoughts rather than the info. Taking some deep breathes the fourteen year old pressed the backspace button and decided not to think on that door anymore otherwise she would never finish.

Just as she was about to start typing again Midori suddenly felt Bulbasaur stand up from below her feet. Looking down at the small grass-type the short girl saw the bulbasaur looking at the entrance of the lab and growling, but before she could ask what was wrong the light skinned teen heard the door that lead outside open.

_'Did Jack return?' _no, that couldn't be. Unless he forgot his wallet or something the professor has no reason to be back so early, after all Jack took his sweet time when going out for groceries. If it wasn't him Midori guessed that it was most likely one of two remaining individuals that has yet to come for their starter and dex...

Bulbasaur was a very gentle pokemon and never once growled like he was doing right now, that sole fact was what was bothering her the most, _'Why is he growling like that?' _Midori sadly didn't have an answer for that question, but she figured the reason would be revealed when the person walked in.

Midori's light brown eyes grew wide when she saw not one or two, but five individuals walk inside the lab who were all wearing huge black cloaks and different types of masks. The fourteen year old quickly realized who these people were, thieves most likely, and was about to yell an order to Bulbasaur to perform an attack; but before the teen could yell out an attack one of the masked intruders charged towards her and threw her onto the desk she had her laptop on. Midori heard the device hit the floor and from the force of the tackle her glasses fell off from her face.

The one that had attacked her was wearing the glitch-like mask and was currently grabbing her by the neck, making it hard for Midori to breathe. Seeing that his trainer was in trouble Bulbasaur got out his vines, ready to strike the masked individual with a Vine Whip but before he could even react the small dino was kicked by one of the other intruders and hit the nearby wall with a loud thud.

"Bulba-!" Midori cried out her pokemon's name before being cut off when the one with the glitch mask tightened the grip on the young teen's throat, the fourteen year old squirmed and attempted to kick the masked intruder but it was useless.

Without her glasses she couldn't see as well as when she had them on, so her vision was a bit blurry. All she could do was lay on the desk as the one holding her down began to speak, "**YOU! **Tell me where the ditto born files are!"

The fourteen year old gritted her teeth, Midori could barely breathe as the person was squeezing her throat really hard but in forced breathes she spoke, "D-di-ditto born?" she had no idea what this person was talking about, Midori had organized this whole lab thousands of times and never once had she run into files by that name.

The attacker started to squeeze Midori's throat harder from anger, "Don't act dumb, you brat! We we're told to get some files regarding the cloning project from here, so if you don't want to die you better spill out the info!"

Die?

Midori couldn't breathe anymore, her face was turning slightly purple from the lack of oxygen and she started to feel herself gradually lose conscious. She couldn't think straight, and for once in her life she found herself absolutely terrified; not only because of the possibility of being choked to death but because of her pokemon. Was Bulbasaur alright? From the way she was being pinned down, she couldn't see the small dino so she didn't know if the state he was in. As those thoughts flooded her mind the fourteen year old's sight began to get blurrier and she could feel her eye lids grow heavier.

"Hey, Viral I think she's losing conscious..." one of the masked intruders pointed out.

Viral grunted in annoyance after looking at the girl and confirming her friend's warning, lightening her grip just a little bit the masked female raised up her free hand and held up five fingers, "You have five seconds to spill the location, otherwise we'll b-"

"I'm here for my pokemon!"

Everyone in the lab turned to look at the entrance, everyone and even Midori who was being chocked down was wondering how on earth this person got in... One person in particular was regretting not taking a second to lock the door behind him; but any fear of their mission being spoiled was thrown out the window when they saw a boy that was probably in his earlier teens standing right at the door.

Not a single part of Leo expected to see a bunch of mask intruders choking down the girl that lived at the huge house in the corner of town when he had finally arrived at the lab. What startled him the most though was the fact that the thieves were all wearing masks... just like that man from many years ago.

A small part of him was panicking at the thought that these people might have some connection to that masked man, but once that thought fully processed his fear began to change to anger. Gripping the door knob tighter from the rage that was flowing through him, Leo didn't think for a second before charging towards the nearest masked intruder and attempting to punch them.

The one he was going to attack had a persian mask, said individual managed to move to the side before the punch landed and quickly attempted to land a punch of his own. The hit managed to land on Leo's face, causing the young teen to be thrown back a bit before charging again and landing a kick to the masked male's stomach; when it made contact the thief fell to his knees in which Leo took the opportunity to roundhouse kick, this time right on the masked individual's face; the force was enough to kick away the mask off his face and to knock him out cold.

Before Leo had a chance to attack the one with the pixel mask he was tackled to the ground by two of the other masked intruders. The fifteen year old yelled out of pure anger through gritted teeth, trying to move as much as possible in an attempt to get these two off of him the blue-eyed teen's efforts were in vain.

"Kid's stronger than he looks," The one with the taillow mask spoke. Using one hand he reached into his giant cloak and ran his hand inside it before pulling out a tissue with some substance in it, "But some sleep powder should get him to calm down,"

With not a single moment to waste the taillow masked male covered Leo's mouth with the tissue; the teen in question squirmed in an attempt to get it off from his mouth somehow but his movements grew slower, weaker by the second before his eye lids started to close. A few moments later his movements stopped completely and the young teen was asleep

"That solves the problem," getting off of the boy the male removed the tissue before walking over and handing it over to Viral, "Now use this on her so we can get looking for the files ourselves, otherwise we're wasting precious time,"

"Yeah, good idea Bird!" with her free hand Viral covered Midori's mouth with the tissue that had the Sleep Powder for a few moments. Just like Leo the young teen began to slowly lose conscious and eventually drifted into a heavy sleep. The masked female waited a few seconds just to make sure the girl was really out cold before letting go of the girl's throat and giving back the tissue to the masked male when she turned around to look at him, "Well, we wasted enough time already! Turn this lab upside down if needed, but find those files Bird and Ice Crea-"

When Viral turned to look at her other masked comrade she was surprised to see him knocked out just besides the boy; standing a couple inches away stood a much taller male who was wearing all black and had ebony colored hair.

"Ugh, another brat!" Viral whined out in annoyance before turning to look at Bird, "Bird, take care of him before he goes call the cops or something!"

Before Bird could even attempt some sort of attack the tall teen had already run acrossed the room without making any noise, jumped up an impressive height, and kicked the masked male right in the face which caused him to be thrown back onto some of the chairs.

Viral's eyes grew wide when the tall male stood right beside her in the same spot Bird had been standing at only a few moments ago. Taking a few steps back while looking at the male, Viral attempted to stab him with one of the knifes she had taken for protection; the knife was quickly blocked by the male's own knife.

With incredible skill Damon managed to throw away Viral's knife with his own weapon. As soon as the weapon was thrown away the taller male grabbed Viral's mask and quickly took the tissue with the sleep powder (which he had gotten from the one with the taillow mask) and covered her mouth with it. Damon waited a few moments before the female fell onto the floor on her own and started snoozing away with no worries in the world.

The ebony haired teen looked all around the lab; scanning the whole area with his ruby red eyes he could clearly see all the thieves knocked out along with the two kids who seemed a tad younger then himself.

Strangely calm Damon began to pick up the masked individuals one after another, putting them in the middle of the lab and laying them in a sitting position so they had their backs to each other the tall male started looking around the lab for a bit; finding some strong looking rope in the corner of the lab the tall teen began to tie it around the thieves.

Once the rope was carefully tied around all of them Damon made the strongest, most complicate knot Will had taught him back in Snowpoint before leaving to take care of the two younger teens. The ebony haired teen was no doctor, but his foster mom had taught him some simple stuff and after doing a careful examination he realized that the two would be fine.

Grabbing the shorter girl first, he laid her against a nearby wall before putting the other young teen right next to her in the same position. Damon then walked over to the bulbasaur who was knocked out right beside the wall a couple inches away, the grass type seemed to have taken a hit from one of the thieves.

He took a potion from his backpack and used it on the small grass-type before grabbing him and taking the pokemon towards the two knocked out kids, he didn't know who it belonged to so Damon laid Bulbasaur right in the middle of the two.

"That takes care of that..." the tall teen muttered to himself, "Now, my pokemon,"

Walking over to the two boxes laying on the nearby desk, Damon grabbed the one with his name and opened it up; seeing a pokeball with a small water design on the front and a pokedex right beside the capturing device the tall teen took both items. Putting them inside his pockets the ebony haired male then walked over to a nearby phone and dialed the number of the local police.

"Hello? This is the Saint Maria Police Force hotline,"

"Some thieves broke into the lab of Professor Jack Bailstone," Damon hoped that was the professor's name, he hadn't really bothered to completely memorize it, "We need some help immediately,"

"Understood, please remain calm. We will be sending the nearest police officers," as soon as he heard that the tall male hanged up the phone.

Telling himself that all his work was done here, Damon walked over to the door that lead outside before exiting the small lab. Adjusting his backpack the tall male began walking down the small hill and making his way to the nearby forest,

"Hopefully I don't get lost on my way to Gold Beach," the tall teen had arrived to Mobius two days before new year's and just today he had managed to arrive to Saint Maria; to be honest at times even he was surprised how bad his sense of direction was.

'_I need a map,' _Damon thought grimly as he disappeared into the forest.

Little did the tall male know that he was being watched... a few moments passed since Damon walked into the forest before a figure fell from a one of the trees. Looking in the direction the tall male had walked off to, the individual dashed the same way without making a single sound... well almost no sound.

"Ninini~!"

**_Outskirts of Saint Maria: 11:45_**

"Come here little noctowl~!"

As soon as the male heard that Owl started to run faster, much, much faster. He had taken off the cloak because it restrained his movements way too much, so apart from his noctowl mask he seemed like a regular city folk... just a bit too scrawny. Owl wasn't an athlete, that's why only five minutes of running had him almost tired out.

But there was no way in hell he was stopping. Owl could still sense her just a couple feet away, running a lot faster and getting rid of distance he had managed to put by the second.

Just like he had told Viral, Owl was going back home. A good hour into his journey back to Minstrel Owl ran into a young girl, probably 16, that had on some oddly curious clothing; the teen in question had been standing in the middle of a clearing, looking up at the sky with an unreadable expression before her head spun around to look at Owl. Out of nowhere the girl threw a knife at the older male before she started to chase him.

"Jaws, Water Gun~!"

Owl suddenly felt a powerful blast of water hit his back, causing the male to fall face flat on the grassy ground after shouting out in pain.

He could hear the girl get closer each time she took a step; Owl could also hear some smaller steps waddling a bit behind. The male figured she would be here in a few moments, so Owl attempted to get up on his feet and start running again but before he could even take a single step he felt the girl kick his back.

Owl heard her giggle as he fell on the ground once again, "Sorry little noctowl, it's too late~!"

Turning around to clearly look at the female, Owl's brown eyes fell directly on her face. The girl had a frail looking appearance, with delicate looking pale skin and big, round black eyes looking down at the older male as her small mouth started to form into a sinister smirk. Her shoulder length black hair was moved lightly by a passing wind, causing some bangs fall onto her forehead.

"W-what do you want from me?!" Owl yelled out.

The girl grinned lightly, with a hand she signaled for the tododile to stay back before getting closer to Owl, "Trust me, if it was my choice I would have left you alone," the girl spoke as she carefully took off Owl's mask. Throwing it away as hard she could in the distance, the pale girl continued,

"Sadly for you, mother asked me to get rid of anyone with a mask,"

Owl widened his eyes when that statement fully processed through his mind, "W-wait! I'm not part of the Arcadia, really! I don't even have a pokemon!" the older male held his hands up.

"I know that," the pale girl began to take off some dust that had gotten on the bottom of her black dress from running after him, the dress reached down a bit past her knees and had two red straps with black polka dots over the clothing piece, "It's pretty obvious you aren't a real member of the Arcadia, and to be honest just like everyone else I don't think they exist"

When Owl heard that part he grew hopeful that this girl might let him leave, but then the pale girl took out a knife while turning to look at him and grinned widely, "But worshippers like you are also threat so I'll break a few dozen bones, give you a few cuts here and there, before letting you go alright?"

**_Saint Maria: Lab, 12:00_**

"Leo..."

"Not now mom!" the blue eyed teen shouted out before hugging harder his pillow, or that's what he thought the thing he was hugging was. To be honest he didn't care, Leo was sleepy and this thing was really soft and warm...it smelled nice too.

Midori spoke in a very stoic voice, this was one of those very rare moments that she could barely keep her calm persona, "Please let go of-"

"No!"

"Bulba,"

It took a few moments for Leo to remember that he was not at home, but at the lab, and had been knocked out by that tissue with some sleep powder. The young teen heard a man coughing before he was moved harder, seemingly in an attempt to get him up, "You're in luck, I'm not your mother. But Leo I really need you to let go of-"

"Is that you Phil?"

"Yup," Phil quickly answered.

"Saur, saur!"

Daring to peak a look Leo opened one of his light blue eyes, forgetting for a moment about the masked intruders the young teen looked up at Phil who was standing right next to... the girl that lived in the very big house at the corner of town.

Opening both his eyes Leo looked down at whatever he was hugging and came into direct eye contact with the bulbasaur, who seemed to be enjoying the ursaring hug the human was giving him. The raven haired teen blinked a few times before looking up at the girl with glasses, who had a slightly annoyed look on her face, and then back at the bulbasaur. He repeated this a few times before letting out an, "Oh,"

Leo didn't let go of the bulbasaur as he stood up, but soon enough he handed the small dino back to the girl with glasses, "I think this little guy belongs to ya," the taller teen chuckled nervously, scratching back of his head when the girl took the small grass-type into her hands.

"Thank you, Leo,"

"You know my name?" Leo asked with a cocked up eyebrow.

Midori started to pet her pokemon before answering the taller boy's question, "Well, apart from the police officer present here just mentioning it we did go to the same trainer school for a bit,"

"Oh yeah!" the taller teen snapped his fingers, "Midori, right?"

"Yes," Midori spoke in her usual calm tone, adjusting her glasses the shorter teen spoke before Leo could, "Now... if you will excuse me, I need to check on my laptop," and with that the girl left the two males and went over to the spot where her laptop had fallen.

"Leo, are you alright?" Phil spoke, his darker blue eyes looking towards the younger male with a hint of worry in them.

Turning to look at her mom's work partner Leo wasn't surprised to see him in his usual police uniform; his short blonde hair was tucked into his blue police cap and like always his clothing was sparkling clean. To be honest he seemed more like a movie star rather than a police officer, Phil had that pretty boy charm to him.

Well that's how his mom described him whenever she talked about the blonde male, but the way she said it made it sound like that was a bad thing.

Leo nodded towards Phil, "Yeah, I'm fine... but what happened?"

Phil shrugged his shoulders, "To be honest, I was kind of hoping you would give us some info," the blonde police officer began to explain what had occurred: when they arrived at the lab right after getting a call from a male saying there was a robbery going, Phil and a few other police officers found the thieves all tied up and knocked out in the middle of the laboratory with both Leo and Midori laid up against the wall nearby.

No sign of the male who called them.

Phil called for backup and as of now the intruders were being taken to the police department in town, so they could be interrogated properly. In the meantime Midori had woken up on her own and was quickly checked by a medical team, apart from her throat being slightly bruised she was fine. After her checkup and interrogation they attempted to wake up the younger male, who oddly enough was hugging the bulbasaur.

"I see... but I was knocked out just like Midori, so I can't tell you much," Leo felt oddly dizzy and found it a bit difficult to maintain his balance every now and then, but he didn't let it show.

Phil shook his head, "That's fine, we need as much info as possible,"

It took a few minutes for Leo to properly explain what had happened when he had arrived to the lab. Phil wrote down everything in his small, red notebook and when the teen was done telling his part of the story the older male looked over what he had written and nodded, "Alright, thanks Leo," turning around the older male took a few steps towards the exit.

Before the police officer left Leo decided to ask one final question... "Um, what will happen to those guys?"

Taking one more step Phil stopped just as he was at the entrace, turning slightly to look at Leo the blonde male spoke, "They'll be handed to the International Police for attempted robbery of a Pokemon Association funded research facility." taking the chance to put his small notebook inside his pocket vest, the older male continued, "10 years in Battery City's prison, 8 if they are lucky, anything else?"

Leo shook his head, "Nah... well now that I think about it, why didn't mom come?"

Phil chuckled in amusement upon hearing the question, "A bunch of clamperl were driven onto the beach again by the waves, chief asked her to move all of them back into the ocean," moving up his sleeve the older male looked at his digital watch, "Should be about done by now, anyways later Leo! Best of luck in your journey," and with that the officer jogged back to his police car before driving back to town.

"Hey Midori," the two young teenagers turned towards the entrance and saw the professor with some bags full of food, "Why where there a bunch of police cars coming back from the direction my lab's at?" Jack walked into the lab and laid his groceries on an empty table, but soon enough Leo caught his eye, "And who's this kid? Is he your... special friend?"

Midori sighed tiredly and looked up at the ceiling, "It's a long story, professor" further explaining that this person (Leo) was most definitely not her boyfriend, the young assistant suggested Jack to get Leo's own starter kit.

Meanwhile young teen in question was looking at this motivational poster on the corner of the lab, it had a meowth hanging off a tree branch with the caption being _hang in there._

Leo didn't know why, but he found the poster very... interesting.

"Interesting right?" Jack popped out nowhere right behind the younger male, startling Leo a bit before nodding towards him.

Jack seemed pretty happy about that answer, "Yeah... what did I tell you Miss Midori!" the older male turned to look at his assistant, which the teen girl simply ignored as she was currently inspecting her laptop for any damages.

Deciding to take that as a win Jack handed Leo the box, "Here you go, your very own starter and dex,"

The raven haired teen took the box into his hands before opening up. Like all the others it had a pokeball and a pokedex; the pokeball that contained the starter the young male chosen had a small fire design on the tip.

"Thanks professor," sounding oddly serious, Leo grabbed both items before putting them inside his backpack. Excusing himself the teen walked towards the entrance of the lab and made his way outside before closing the door behind.

Looking up at the sun his mind still wondered about the masked thieves; because he had kind of raged the teen didn't have a chance to ask them if they somehow knew the masked man he had fought with many years ago.

'_Wait'_

Leo shook his head and began to laugh out loud while he walked down the small hill. Why did he need to know about that man? That wasn't the reason he had chosen to go on this journey, his goal was to become the best coordinator in Mobius and that's what he would do! Convincing himself that those masked individuals probably had no connection with the guy he fought with many years ago, Leo began to jog slightly in the general direction of the docks; he had planned ahead with Liz to meet there once they got their pokemon, after all.

**_"_****_THIS LAB WAS WHAT?!"_**

The young teen stopped jogging as soon as he heard the ear-piercing shout. Turning around as it had come from the lab, the blue eyed male decided to wait for a bit to see if anything else would happen. He immediately began to regret that choice when Jack walked out of the lab, Midori being pulled by one hand while her other hand contained a grey backpack.

Jack pointed in the direction of Leo, "YOU!"

For a moment the blue eyed teen thought there was someone else behind him, but he realized the chances of him being that lucky were impossible so he simply stood there like some tree as Jack caught up to him.

"What I am about to ask you might sound strange... but I beg you to take this girl with you!" Jack lightly pushed Midori to the front, the whole time the short girl had a very annoyed look on her face.

Midori decided to put an end to this nonsense, "Professor, I'm not going on a journey with this person I barely know,"

"I agree," Leo added in, it's not as if he didn't like Midori. She was sort of cute, sure a bit stoic most of the times... but none of her really seemed... traveling material.

To be honest Midori didn't like Leo in the slightest. From the few years she attended the trainer school with him the short girl knew more than enough about the young male, and his lack of seriousness was something that she wouldn't be able to handle while traveling a whole region.

Jack pulled her a reasonable distance away from Leo before explaining to Midori his decision in a hushed tone, "Don't worry, it will only be for a while. But I need to have the International Police investigate this incident a bit more..." it had been a long while that Midori heard Jack talk so serious, to be honest when he began to tell her that her life might be in danger depending on what they (the International Police) find the brown haired girl was actually considering going on a journey with Leo, even if he was annoying.

"Please Midori... just do what I'm asking you okay?" Jack pleaded, "If it turns out to be nothing, I will send someone to bring you back here,"

The young teen remained silent for a few moments, eyebrows furrowed in deep thought the brown haired girl nodded, "Alright, Jack,"

Jack smiled lightly before walking back to Leo, who remained in the same spot while looking at the forest nearby, "I don't expect you to do this for free, young man. If you take her on your journey you will be given a special reward..."

Reward?

"It's settled then!" Leo gave him a thumbs up, the blue eyed teen didn't worry about what the reward could be because after all this man was a professor! He must have a lot of rare and cool items he could give as a reward.

"Good!" Jack replied in an equally cheerful tone, nodding towards Midori who had a calm look on her face the professor wished them the best of luck before going back to his lab.

The two teens remained there on the same spot as Jack left, an uncomfortable silence filled the air for a few seconds before Midori spoke, "So shouldn't we be getting going..?"

Leo shook his head, "Not yet, I planned to meet up with this friend of mi-"

"Leo!"

Both teenagers turned around and saw Liz running towards them as well as someone else. Leo was clearly surprised to see the blonde, but like always Midori had a stoic look on her face, though the young teen couldn't lie... she was a bit relieved she wouldn't be traveling alone with Leo.

Even though Elizabeth was much worse, "So what the hell happened? I was waiting at the docks for a very, very long time,"

Just as Leo was about to tell her the story Liz suddenly noticed Midori right next to her best friend, "What's Midori doing here?"

"What? You remember her name?" Leo asked upon hearing his best friend, doing nothing to hide the surprise in his tone.

Liz nodded, "Of course, dumbass. We did go to the same trainer school only last year,"

Before Leo had a chance to respond the blonde female spoke, "Anyways, I also brought someone," like something out of a movie a girl suddenly appeared from behind Liz, even shorter then Midori the girl took a step to the side and was now right beside the taller blonde.

"Hello! Leo and- **MIDORI**!" the short blonde spoke out from shock.

Midori waved at her, "Hey Ro," the brown haired girl spoke in her usual calm tone but inside she was just as surprised as the short blonde... Midori had honestly not expected to see this girl again.

"Wait, who's sh-"

"We have the same destination in mind, so Ro is going to travel with us," further explaining that they were running very late and had to had leave town a few minutes ago, Liz told Leo he could explain things on the way before the taller blonde took the lead and started to run towards the road that let out of town.

Ro ran right behind Liz, and even Midori started to jog behind the two. The male simply stood there for a few moments, wondering what on earth was going on. But before he could think a bit more on the matter the blue eyed male heard his best friend call out to him, and with that Leo began to run after the three girls.

"Well, I hope I packed enough food... Liz doesn't seem have brought anything with her," the young teen muttered to himself before he started to run faster in an attempt to catch up to his three traveling companions.

**_Lab: 12:10_**

Jack watched from a window as Midori and her group started to run towards the direction of the main road, which led out of town and into route 1.

He stood there for a few moments before getting away from the window and turning to look at his lab, his thoughts were full of nothing but the incident that had occurred when he wasn't present. Jack was quite fond of Midori, she was a hard worker and highly intelligent... the girl had a bright future as a pokemon researcher that much was certain.

That's why he had to send Midori with that boy, to get her as far away as possible from this place. If the girl had told him the right information... then her life was in danger, not only her life but Leo's as well. In the end it really depended on what the International Police managed to get from the thieves.

What scared the young professor the most was when Midori had told him what the masked intruders have been looking for,

"Ditto born... how could they have known?" only a few, chosen individuals knew about that project and he knew them all well enough that there wasn't a single doubt they hadn't broken their secrecy. So how...?

Even if those intruders were just a bunch of idiots, the fact alone that they knew about the longest running project the Pokemon Association has been working on was more than enough to make them dangerous... especially because they had masks.

Jack sat on a desk chair and sighed in annoyance, "Some copy-cat organization or idiots who are attempting to make the group from scratch..."

Those were the only two options. He wouldn't-no, he _couldn't _accept the possibility that the actual Masked Arcadia had something to do with this; they were just some myth and never existed! The arcadia was a made up group born from some madman's vision. Jack was confident on this, mostly because the organization has never made an actual action or the like to prove their existence; all they had were those idiotic worshipers.

"Seriously... the destruction of all life, who wants that?" plants, humans, and pokemon alike! He had heard some organization who only cared about money, others about expanding the land mass or ocean, one about the liberation of pokemon and others trying to recreate the world; but Masked Arcadia only wanted one thing, complete extinction of all life.

But enough of that, deciding to get his thoughts off the matter Jack went over to a nearby desk full of letters and looked at the mail that had come this morning. Like usual most were bills, some useless junk mail and a few were letters from traveling friends; but one caught his eye. It had a gold colored ribbon on the front, and to be honest I had to be the fanciest mail he has ever gotten.

Opening up Jack skimmed over the note that came inside, and after a few moments ripped it to pieces, "Fairy Tale huh?"

Fairy Tale, some new corporation that focused on environmental friendly technology has been gaining success and fame by the day. Many big, important companies and corporations have been funding it lately but the company has yet to bring to light any actual inventions or projects... Jack found that quite odd.

Either way the young professor wasn't interested in funding anything... that meant getting rid of money.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Emerald Forest: 14:00**

"Hmm..."

Damon once again heard the rustle of some bushes a few feet behind him, but his attention remained up ahead like usual. It had been a while since he had left Saint Maria, and to be honest he was regretting his choice of not taking the route and instead walk randomly through the forest which surrounded it. Damon knew very well that his sense of direction wasn't keen... but it wasn't awful either. The tall teen was positive that if he just kept going in a straight line, then he would reach Gold Beach eventually.

'_Once I get to Gold Beach I really need to get a-'_

His train of thought was suddenly cut off by his instincts alerting him to turn around right at that very moment, so as someone who always trusts his instincts Damon took out his knife before spinning around and tackling the person that had been stalking him for quite some time now to the ground.

"Gaa-! Sorry!" Damon was a bit surprised when he saw a male a tad younger than himself. With purple eyes looking up at the taller male all wide opened from fear, the guy's spiky black hair was unusually long and was tied up into a pony tail by a purple piece of cloth. Damon also noted that he had some black lines covering both his cheeks.

"Why are you following me?" after realizing he was no real threat, Damon got off the male and put his knife away.

As the currently nameless male got up, Damon got a better look at him. The purpley-eyed teen had a ridiculously long light purple scarf around his neck, with the ends reaching down a bit behind his back. He was wearing a black, full body suit that seemed to be made of some very light material. The younger teen had a pair of small, black boots at the bottom but what caught Damon's eyes the most was definitely the katana strapped to his back.

"First, let me introduced myself..." the male spoke in a bit of a squeaky voice, oddly enough, "I am Sasuke Uzumaki! Proud member of the Uzumaki clan and-" as he rambled on the teen looked over at Damon who had a light frown on his face.

"Impressive... you managed to see through my lie!"

"You shouldn't assume things,"

But the male just ignored that last statement, "Very well... just call Simon, I am afraid I can't tell you my last name,"

Simon? That was really... simple compared to that last one, "Mind answering my question?"

Simon nodded, "Right, of course!" the younger male paused for a little bit before he continued, "I saw what you did back at the lab..."

_Oh._

Damon started to assume a lot of things, mostly about this person being related in some way or another to those masked thieves he beat up back at the lab. Slowly, the tall male started to reach for the knife had put away... but for once in his life, Damon did not expect at all what Simon was about to say next.

"Please take me as your disciple!" Simon got on his knees and got ahold of one of Damon's legs, "I want to learn to fight just like you!"

As Simon continued to beg and go on about how much he wanted to become just as good as Damon in combat, the taller teen decide to put an end to this nonsense, "Look... I don't really know how to fight and to be honest I just did what my instincts told me," further explaining that his only real goal in mind was just to battle the gyms and conquer the Emerald League, Damon attempted to pull his leg away... but failed.

"Huh?" Simon looked up at Damon, one of his eyebrows cocked up before he spoke, "So why aren't you headed to Gold Beach?"

"I am,"

"Oh... but Gold Beach is the opposite way," Simon took one of his hands off Damon's leg before pointing in the right direction, "and Route 1 is located a mile or so from here,"

Taking the opportunity to shake the strange kid off his leg, Damon couldn't help but sigh in annoyance when his suspicions were confirmed, "Really...?"

"Yeah," Simon got off the ground and looked up at the taller teen, wondering if this guy was really a master at combat; but then out of nowhere he had an idea, "Oh! I know how about I be your navigator and in return you can take me in as your disciple?"

Damon was just about to remind this weird kid that he didn't actually have any fighting techniques or anything of the like to teach him whatsoever, but to be honest after being told that he was far from reaching Gold Beach... the tall male furrowed his eyebrows in deep thought, this guy seemed to know this area really well. So with his help, maybe he would be able to get to Gold Beach a lot faster?

"...how good are you as a navigator?" Damon asked.

Simon grinned lightly, "I memorized a very detailed map of Mobius! I know this region like the back of my hand!" the shorter male did a thumb up in reassurance.

…

…

…

Damon sighed, "Alright,"

"Yeah!" Simon jumped up in glee while smiling brightly, "You won't regret this, sensei!"

Damon had begun walking in the direction Simon had pointed at by now, "Just call me Damon," the male replied bluntly, but his tone held just a bit of annoyance in it.

"Okay, Damon sensei!" Simon repeated the correct way to refer to his sensei (in his view anyways) as he began to take the lead. To be honest the younger male was feeling a tad guilty, maybe he had overreacted with the whole "knowing this region like the back of mind" thing just a little, tiny bit... it's true he had memorized a whole map of Mobius, but to be honest Simon was sure there was plenty of areas the map didn't show.

"So why did you even want to learn to fight?" Damon had to ask this, to be honest apart from his fashion sense this kid seemed pretty normal... no reasons came to mind on why Simon would want to learn to fight. Was he seeking revenge of some sort?

"Well, you see I'm a ninja," Simon replied pretty casually.

"Don't say that like its normal,"

Simon didn't seem to hear Damon though, "While I also plan to pokemon battle I, Simon, need to learn how to fight myself so I can become the hokag-erm, I mean the best ninja trainer in Mobius!

"...Oh," Damon had a bit of disappointment in his tone.

Simon didn't seem to notice it thought as he replied confidently, "Yup,"

After that small conversation everything remained quiet for a few seconds, which Damon didn't really mind for once... it remained like that till said silence was broken a few seconds later by Simon, "So why do you even carry a knife?" He had to get that question out of the way; Simon didn't want to become a disciple of some mugger by accident after all.

"I could ask you the same thing," Damon eyed the katana on Simon's back.

Simon took out the weapon strangely casually, "It's not real!" to support his statement Simon began to slash at some random things around him; a tree, some bushes filled with berries, and even some random flower on the ground... all of them remained unharmed, "I just carry it to give me the ninja look, ya know,"

After finishing his sentence Simon repeated his earlier question, in which Damon answered, "I was told Mobius is a very dangerous region... apart from it having a scary amount of feral pokemon loose, it has a lot of gangs too,"

"Oh... well that's true," Simon began to think on the law change Mobius made a few decades back, in which it changed the 10 year old requirement to start a journey to 14 (and even with the earliest you can start a journey being 14, the most recommended age to start a journey was 15-17)... seeing as a lot of kids ended up going missing, kidnapped, or even found dead in some of the worse cases traveling through Mobius became very unpopular for a few years... but that was when the league had just been formed.

With more experienced trainers traveling through Mobius, newbies felt a bit safer and began to travel through the gigantic region; while some liked to be loners, it has become common for beginners to travel in groups because of safety in numbers and much more money coming in to buy supplies.

While that was all going through Simon's mind Damon felt a bit... strange. The tall male has been told many times before the he gave off an unapproachable aura, like some kind of criminal, plus you added his height at the mix and Damon... while he didn't like to admit, became a bit of a loner. Of course there was another, more complicated reason he didn't really have any friends... but Damon felt like that first one played a bigger role too.

With all that in mind, Damon was used to people getting scared when they first met him... but Simon was very different. He was either very fearless or very clueless, but Simon didn't seem to feel any kind of fear or the like towards him.

"We should arrive at Gold Beach by tomorrow morning if we keep this pace up," Simon suddenly spoke out of nowhere.

Damon nodded, "Alright,"

**Route 1: 17:00**

Ever since he realized that there was no such thing as coodies, Leo had always dreamed to travel in a group around Mobius and be the only guy in it; many people would find this quite odd... actually many people would find this creepy, which is why he never shared this secret fantasy of his with anyone. While the reason to this dream of his was mostly because it raised his chances of getting a girlfriend (at least one of them would fall for him... right?) Leo also thought that it might be the chance to get his very own... harem!

While going through route 1 with his three companions Liz, Ro, and Midori any chance of anything of the above happening was not only whipped by a Frenzy Plant, but burned by a Blast Burn only to be blasted into space by a Hydro Cannon and lastly get hit by thousands of Draco Meteors as it traveled through a dark abyss for eternity.

First, Liz was Liz. That simple fact threw her off the list of "possible girlfriends" immediately. To him Liz wasn't a girl, Liz was Liz!

Second, Ro... to be honest she looked really cute with that long, blonde hair of hers and from what Leo had seen so far she seemed nice enough... but for the first time in his life Leo could not see himself dating this girl.

Third, Midori... she was Midori.

While Liz picked her nose with no worries in the world Ro had taken the lead of their group, and as of now skipping all the way at the front almost as if she was walking on a trail of sunshine and rainbows; Midori was all the way at the back with her laptop out, she had bulbasaur out of his pokeball and had him carrying it with his vines so she could use her device with ease.

_'…Curse my luck,'_

The journey so far had been full of eating some of the burritos he had brought with him, Liz beating up some kids in a pokemon battle before shortly making fun of them, Ro would point at something randomly in the air or inside the forest but a few moments later would tell her companions they turned to look too later, Midori was with her laptop and bulbasaur, and to finish it all off they ate some more burritos.

Luckily both Ro and Leo had gotten fire starters... so they could easily cook the frozen burritos in more or less a minute.

It had been a few minutes since anyone had spoken, and to be honest Leo felt a bit uncomfortable.. but thankfully his best friend decided to speak.

"Leo, I'm hungry," Liz took her finger out of her nose before turning to look at the blue eyed-male, to help her point she grabbed her stomach as it began to growl out of hunger.

"Whaa-? But we just ate an hour ago!" the young teen forgot to add that Liz had eaten more then her fair share of food, for the third time so far.

"I'm kind of hungry myself," Ro added in, also grabbing her gut the short girl turned around to look at the male.

Midori didn't say anything, but she was also a bit hungry... it seems the food Leo had brought with him was the kind that just gave you the urge to eat more and more and while it filled you up, that feeling only lasted for a bit. That's why she preferred to eat much more... healthier options.

"Fine, just give me a moment!" Leo stopped in his tracks before reaching into his backpack. He had an irritated look on his face and didn't seem happy with already going through so much food supplies... but out of nowhere Leo's light blue eyes grew wide and he began to search much more frantically, going as far as throwing stuff out of his backpack just to make sure.

Both blondes walked closer to Leo, each one had a confused look on their face before Ro asked the obvious question, "What's wrong?"

Leo kept searching through his small backpack before eventually answering the short blonde's question, "No more food! Not even the fruits I brought with me!"

"WHAT?!" Ro shouted in disbelief, thrown aback by the news.

Midori frowned lightly, "Well... this is troublesome," the brown haired girl muttered to herself.

"..." Liz looked up to the sky, suddenly finding it very interesting as she began to whistle a tune in a very casual manor.

Leo turned around to look at his childhood friend, not even attempting to hide his annoyance the male shouted, "I get the burritos... but how on earth did you get the rest of the food?!"

The blonde shrugged.

"That's not a proper answer!"

The blonde shrugged again.

The fifteen year old shook his head furiously before pointing an accusing finger at Liz, "Oh no! You aren't getting out of this one by shrugging it off!"

Liz stood there for a few moments; an unreadable expression was on her face for a few seconds... before she shrugged.

"Gaah! Stop that!"

"N-now... calm down guys," Ro intervened before things got ugly, getting in the middle of the two older teens she began to speak, "I can just cook us something up, I'm not a master chef I admit... but I know basics,"

Midori shook his head before looking at Leo, "Stop acting like a wild vigoroth, Leo," the young teen stated bluntly before further explaining there was no need to get so angry about the situation in the same tone.

"Yeah, Midori's right!" Ro clapped her hands in delight, "I just need to get some berries and-"

"Berries?!" Leo replied in disbelief, "Won't we like... die? Since they're for pokemon and all?"

Liz who was a few inches away didn't say anything, which honestly surprised Leo as the blonde tended to be really talkative in these kinds of situations. Instead the trainer simply looked at the scene, and amused look on her face.

Before Ro could answer Leo, Midori beat her to it, "Not exactly," figuring that she needed to help calm down the situation, the brown haired girl had put her laptop away before walking up to them, "You'll feel a bit nauseas when you eat pokemon berries for the first time, but since they aren't poisonous your body will eventually grow used to them,"

"...Oh," was Leo's all so intelligent response.

Ro smiled lightly before nodding, "We just need to collect a few berries, so how about we gather them as we go?"

"Good idea, Ro" Midori stated before nodding lightly, she was pleased that not everyone in this group had the brain speed of a slakoth.

Liz shrugged, "Sounds good shrimp!" the taller blonde responded while giving her a thumbs up, a toothy grin beginning to form on her mouth.

"... Sounds like a plan!" Leo answered brightly. To be honest he just felt silly now, but at the end of the day that's how he and Liz got along and the teen was just fine with the way things were like.

So like before Ro took the lead, but this time with Midori a few steps behind her as Liz walked behind the two females at a casual pace; but it was seemingly enough to keep up with the two. This time it was Leo who was staying behind.

Leo had to admit that he hadn't been so... enthusiastic with the group at first. Ever since Liz had convinced him to go on a journey along with her (along the way he would become a better coordinator, or so he was told) Leo had planned every part of it perfectly. Of course he hadn't told anyone this, fearing that by revealing his plans that they would somehow end up getting ruined.

But, the reality of it was that things tended not to go the way you planned them most of the time. While that would have bothered Leo a few weeks back, right now things didn't seem so... bad. Despite the group being formed completely randomly, everyone seemed to balance well with each other.

'_Maybe everything in this life happens for a reas-'_

"**GAAH**!" Leo was pulled out of his thoughts by a sudden scream up front, thinking that it was maybe Ro or Midori the young male did not expect to see Liz clinging onto Midori as if her life depended on it; pointing with a single finger Leo looked towards the direction it was pointing at and saw a... starly.

"Elizabeth... you are quite heavy," Midori could barely stand up from the extra weight from the blonde clinging onto her; while in truth Liz didn't weight that much to begin with... Midori wasn't exactly strong in terms of strength, "P-please get off m-"

That's when Midori felt herself lose balance, which caused her to fall onto the dirt road with Liz still clinging onto her.

In the meantime Ro had walked up to the starly and as of now, was crouching down while petting the small bird pokemon, "Awww~! It's so cute~!" the short blonde squealed in delight.

"Don't touch that thing shrimp!" Liz shouted out in fear, "It might rip your finger off or something!"

"Elizabe-" Midori was cut off when she felt the taller female suddenly jump up slightly, causing her to be hit in the gut.

Ro giggled lightly, "Don't be silly Liz! There's no way such a cutie woul-"

_Chomp._

Everything seemed to freeze for a few seconds, Leo who had been watching the scene from afar had his mouth wide opened along with his eyes from the shock of what he just witnessed just like Liz. Even Midori who was being squished by one her traveling companion seemed quite surprised from what just happened.

The starly had taken one of Ro's small fingers into its beak, and was seemingly trying to swallow the rest of it.

The short blonde in question remained in the same question, a huge smile was still etched on her face while her mind tried to fully process what just happened. Before anybody could ask if she was alright, Ro jumped up and began moving her hand around wildly in an attempt to shake the starly off, "**GET IT OFF ME!**" she screamed while running around frantically.

Leo was the only one that rushed over to help as Liz had begun to freak out even more which caused Midori to remain trapped right under her.

_'Or I could have been wrong,' _Leo thought grimly while he grabbed an empty pokeball that he had in his pocket before throwing it to the starly, or at least tried to as Ro kept on running all over the place while screaming for someone to help her.

**Emerald Forest: 19:00**

"Hmm..."

Shiny emerald eyes looked down towards her new companion, who was quite shorter than herself. But to be fair the 16 year old was a giant compared to most kids she knew around her age, so she didn't really mind.

Kyouka stood at nearly six feet and while she looked slim, in truth she had small but nonetheless toned muscles. Her long, messy crimson hair was tied up into a high pony tail and would bounce with every step she took.

As of right now the tall female had on a white dress shirt with most of the top buttons undone and sleeves rolled up to her elbows, which exposed some of her light caramel skin. Kyouka's bottom wear was a blue skirt that reached down a bit above her knees and some black combat boots to finish her outfit.

"So... what's you name again?" Kyouka asked with a toothy grin that showed off her sharp teeth, almost as if they belonged to a sharpedo.

Before her companion could answer Kyouka tripped on a rock.

"Woah, you okay?" hazel eyes looked down at the giant teen, a hint of worried in them as the fall looked quite nasty (just like all the others) but when the female quickly got up, Ari shook his head.

Adjusting the red goggles on his head Ari Stone moved his black bang which hid his right eye to the side. The male questioned for a moment why he kept his hair so long... it was so long in length that he needed to put it in a ponytail so it wouldn't get in the way. The mocha-skinned male already looked like a girl with his slim, lean figure so the way he chose to kept his hair didn't help him with his problem of being mistaken by a female,

"Ari Stone,"

Kyouka's mouth shaped into a circle upon hearing that, "You have a really pretty name... Ari,"

"I guess," he shrugged lightly.

The tall female patted the male's back before grinning, "But I think mine's prettier though..."

Ari decided to change the subject before Kyouka decided to ramble on about something weird... just like she had done a few moments ago, "So... erm, Kyouka right?" the male paused for a moment before he continued, "Do you really know how to get to Newgate City?"

"Yup!" Kyouka replied cheerfully, "Papa gave me a map, so I wouldn't get lost..."

"Good," Ari smiled lightly, glad that he wasn't wasting his time on trying to get to Newgate City... again. He had never been to Mobius before, but when he heard some rumor of this company called "Fairy Tale" the male traveled over to the region as fast as he could.

Ari had gotten a lot of leads that could help him with his goal, but all of them had turned out to be a wild farfetch'd chase. He wouldn't give up though... because if the rumor he had heard was true, then maybe... just maybe he would finally get to see-

The male was pulled out of his thoughts when Kyouka tripped and fell onto the ground... again.

"That one actually hurt," while lying face flat on the ground the tall redhead spoke, making her sound a bit gurgled.

**Emerald Forest: 21:00**

Owl couldn't move.

After that strange girl had finished her business with Owl she had walked in some random direction and hadn't come back since. Owl's light blue eyes were all puffed up and red, signs that he had been crying. When the girl had started with his "punishment" it had pained him, a lot, and while he still felt pain from the wounds she had inflicted on him... Owl had gotten used to the feeling by now.

The sky was already starting to darken, so he figured it was already the 21th hour or something.

While Owl lay on the grassy floor, unable to do a single thing the blue-eyed male had begun to hate everyone in that group... especially Viral. If it wasn't for her, he would still be back in Minstrel with his mom and little sister... Out of nowhere the male began to hear footsteps. With each second they started to become louder, signaling that whoever it was making their way in his direction.

The 20 year old started to panic, thinking that it might be that girl again. Owl tried to move, but not a single part of his body was reacting. With the footsteps getting closer, the male tried even harder to move and get away as fast as possible... but it was all in vain.

Seeing as there was nothing he could do Owl gave up, instead he looked in the direction the footsteps were coming from and awaited for the girl to pop up out of the bushes. When the bushes started to rustle Owl started to panic even more in the inside, but almost as if lady luck was smiling at him it wasn't the girl that came out of the bushes... but a boy.

Because of the state he was in, Owl couldn't note much of the boy's features. But even to a starved, tired out both emotionally and physically Owl he could tell the large scar the boy had on his face... which covered one of his eyes and the chimchar that was on top of his head. The small flame the fire-type had on his bottom illuminated the area.

"H-help me... please" The older male pleaded to the boy, who seemed speechless from the scene he was witnessing... that was only logical explanation to Owl, as the boy hadn't done or said anything for the past minute.

…

The scarred teen huffed lightly before pretending he never saw Owl and continuing on his way. Going right past the beaten up male, the boy didn't look back even once. He didn't really care whatever happened to that guy, seeing it as too much of a bother to help him the boy figured the best thing to do was continue on his way.

He had left town very late because of some... family problems. So right now he was behind all the trainers that had left Saint Maria... that simple fact bothered him, but what angered him to the point of leaving a beaten up person in the middle of the woods was **_that person _**beating him to Gold Beach.

Sure that kid wasn't a trainer anymore...

'_Sooner or later he'll realize his true path...' _the scarred boy thought grimly, when that time would come he would be ready to annihilate Leo and prove once and for all that he, Nicholai Jasper, was the far more superior trainer.

**That's all for this chapter. Sorry for the late delivery, but I had a bit of a writer's block. Otherwise I would have posted this chapter a lot sooner...**

**So this is how i'm planning to do things: i'll write longer chapters when ocs arrive to a city/town but when they are traveling through routes, I will keep them a bit shorter and won't usually past two chapters.**

**I'm hyped for Gold Beach, since i'll be introducing a character I really like as well as a bunch of other stuff. I really appreciate reviews! :D so be sure to leave one! **

**Will always be accepting ocs, but the more the story is progressing the smaller the chance that they will have some big role, so if you are interested hurry! Also for those that have already sent an oc, feel free to send another one! Do message me in advance what role they would play though...**


	5. Chapter 5

**Outskirts of Gold Beach: January 2, 6:00**

"So... that's Gold Beach,"

Standing at the top of a hill a fairly tall male that seemed in his earlier twenties was looking at the huge city from a quite distance, even though he had traveled quite distance already from Saint Maria. The male's tannish skin seemed a bit darker than usual, probably from walking in the sun so much, and his hazel eyes were focused on the city a few miles away while he ran a hand through his platinum blonde hair. He had thought that there could have been something interesting in Saint Maria, but apart from the lab which had a buffoon running it the town had been a pointless location to visit.

Luckily he had decided to fight the gym leader here before he left, so he could just pass through this city and make his way towards the next one that housed a gym. Walking down the small hill his black rubbers boots would make a sort-of irritating noise with each step he took,. Every now and then Albert would adjust the brown tool bet he had on him and his black backpack, which was quite heavy from all the stuff that was in it. But he didn't seem to struggle with it, he had enough muscle to carry it with ease.

He had arrived to Mobius two weeks ago, thinking that getting here earlier would give him an upper advantage over the other trainers who were going to challenge the league Albert was happy to be ahead of everyone else. His mood went down the drain when he challenged the gym leader though... Snivy did well, but at the end it had been his porygon that had won him the badge. The gym leader was annoying, she specialized in dragon types and that fact alone meant she would be someone difficult to beat. What had annoyed him the most though was that she seemed to read him like an open book... with every strategy he came up with, she would counter with one simple attack and his whole plan became garbage.

But in the end, Albert proved to be the superior one. Just like always the proclaimed genius managed to outsmart the gym leader with his porygon and enjoyed to no end seeing the horrid look on her face as her last pokemon fell. He especially adored when the gym leader gave him the badge, proving that she had been nothing but talk.

"I wonder what I should build next..." Albert muttered to himself, the problem was he could never decide on what precisely to do next as an inventor. Come up with a completely new gadget or go back to another project and see if he could make it better?

Well, he'll figure out something later in the day.

**A few miles back**

"... Damon sensei..."

"Hmm?"

Simon could barely keep his eyes opened; he had never woken up so early before without some huge breakfast waiting for him. But the young teen went off and came up with the conclusion that waking up early was part of the training Damon was giving him, so he didn't complain. Still though, the sleepiness was clearly noticeable on Simon as he would rub his tired eyes every now and then to keep them open or yawn out loud, in which Damon who was a few inches back would yawn back.

Simon covered his mouth so that a yawn couldn't escape his lips, "I'm pretty sure we'll be reaching Gold Beach by noon... if we keep this pace up,"

"Kay," Damon rubbed one of his ruby red eyes, he wasn't as tired as Simon who was in front of him but still...

The two males walked for a while longer, while Simon lead the way all hunched and would bump into a tree every other minute or so Damon seemed to keep his cool, and managed to keep his usual straight and composed posture. To be honest Damon couldn't help but worry about Simon leading the way... he seemed like a zombie right now, and the taller male wasn't sure if the shorter teen knew in what direction he was going.

When they heard some rustling of bushes up ahead the two males stopped in their tracks. While Simon was still in his slowpoke-like state and didn't fully understand the situation, Damon had already gotten out one pokeball and was ready to release the pokemon inside it. The two eyed the direction the noise was coming from, one ready to battle when the moment called for it and the other still processing that a battle might be taking place.

By the time Simon realized the situation two figures emerged out of the bushes. One of the figures was tall, hell the figure seemed even taller than Damon and that was saying something. The other figure was tall as well, but didn't seem as tall as the other one.

When the two individuals got closer, both male trainers were surprised to see that it was two girls that had emerged from the bushes.

The tallest of the two, the one that had long red hair grinned widely as he spotted Simon and Damon, which exposed her sharpedo-like teeth "Look, Ari! People!"

Ari, the shortest one nodded and smiled, "Yup, it seems so Kyouka,"

Simon shook his head in an attempt to shake away the drowsiness and smirked, "Well! You know the rules, when trainers meet they battle!"

Damon in response simply threw a pokeball into the air and the device opened, letting out a blast of light onto the ground below; the light started to shape into a small, blue feathered penguin.

It was Kyouka who reacted the fastest out of everyone else, like Damon she threw a pokeball into the air before a blast of light went onto the ground a few feet away from Pipulup and as it started to turn into a small mouse with a flame on its back. It's eyes seemed to be close as it hummed a small tune.

Simon didn't throw a pokeball, instead he whistled and from a tree nearby a pokemon jumped and landed right besides it's fellow water type. This pokemon looked like a frog, and had big yellow eyes while it stood on it's four feet.

Ari seemed to hesitate for a second before throwing one of his own pokeballs; a light blue, feline looking pokemon that seemed to have some ice over it's body growled lightly as it looked at it's two opponents.

Damon frowned lightly at the Glaceon and quickly realized that the shortest out of the two wasn't a beginner like everyone. From just one look the tall male already could tell that the ice-type was several levels higher than the rest of the pokemon out on the field; despite that he wasn't about to give up. He still had a chance to win this battle with Trident; there was always a chance to win.

Simon and Kyouka either didn't care about the much more powerful Glaceon or simply didn't know how powerful it was. Simon was probably the latter, but since the red head was traveling with the mocha-skinned trainer she probably knew how strong Glaceon was.

After a few moments of silence everyone took out their pokedexes in unison, they all held the same basic red design and opened up by themselves onto the page where it showed each trainers pokemon's stats; like health, moves, and the like.

"Trident, use Pound on Glaceon!" Damon was the first one to order an attack.

Kyouka grinned widly upon hearing her opponent, "Get the penguin with Tackle, Jet!"

"Not so fast!" Simon suddenly shouted before going into a pose and pointing at the cyndaquil, "Froakie, use pound on Jet!"

Jet's charge was intervened by Froakie, who had scurried over between the fire-type and Trident before using it's hand to smack the pokemon's face. Simon hoped to give Damon's pokemon a chance to attack Glaceon; he figured they could take care of the other pokemon easily, as Jet was clearly a fire-type and both their pokemon were water.

Everything would have probably gone by plan if it wasn't for one, small detail...

Damon cocked up an eyebrow when he noticed Trident didn't move from his spot. The small water-type didn't seem to care much about what was going on, in fact it didn't seem the least bit interested in listening to his trainer whatsoever as it sat down on the ground while he yawned out of boredom.

Ari noticed this, and while he felt a tad bad for the guy this was battle. If one couldn't control their own pokemon, the trainer was at fault, "Glaceon, Ice beam," the mocha-skinned trainer ordered calmly.

Instantly the eeveelution opened it's mouth and a beam of light, blue energy shot forward in the direction of Trident. The starter didn't even bother to dodge as the beam made contact and threw the small water-type all the way towards a nearby tree; Trident instantly fainted.

At that moment Simon realized he and Damon probably lost the fight. But he wouldn't fully admit that till Froakie lay on the ground fainted, so in a last attempt to somehow turn this around Simon ordered his pokemon to attack Glaceon. Before the small frog could even take a single leap towards the much more powerful pokemon, the ice-type used another Ice Beam and attacked Froakie with it.

The water starter cried out it's name before it was concealed into an ice block.

Kyouka frowned lightly at the scene that just occurred, seemingly not pleased about how things had turned out, "Well... that was sort of disappointing," she had hoped to get some more action out of her first 2v2, but getting some easy money was nice too.

The ninja trainer groaned out in annoyance before walking over to his pokemon and returning it back to his pokeball, adjusting his long scarf around his neck before putting his pokeball inside it "Man... I guess the girls win this one,"

Upon hearing that Kyouka bursted out laughing while Jet cuddled up right next to her feet, seemingly tired from the fight.. Simon tilted his head to the side, wondering why on earth the redhead started to laugh out loud like some kind of maniac.

Damon also wondered this, but his thoughts were elsewhere as he returned Trident back to his pokeball. A solemn look was on his face as the tall trainer looked at the pokeball, wondering what on earth had happened before putting it in his pocket.

Hazel eyes glared at Simon, and if looks could kill the self-proclaimed ninja would be long dead by now. Ari was tempted to order Glaceon to use Ice Beam on the ninja-looking kid, but before he could even do much Kyouka managed to speak, "Ari ain't a girl!" before she started laughing again.

_Oh._

Simon started to blush from embarrassment, "R-really?" the ninja trainer stuttered, though he already figured out it was most likely true because otherwise the trainer wouldn't be glaring at him like he is right now.

Ari nodded, "Yeah, really,"

The self-proclaimed ninja got on his knees and started to beg for forgiveness, while he was sincerely sorry for mistaking him for a girl Simon was more worried about the possibility that his sensei was disappointed in his lack of identifying people.

Ari seriously looked like a girl though...

Damon didn't say anything; after all he thought this Ari person was a girl too. Instead he walked over towards the scene to try to get Simon up before he made a fool out of himself some more...

Luckily for Simon the mocha-skinned trainer was already used to these kinds of misunderstandings and didn't get as angry when people mistook him for a girl... frustrated, yes, but not angry. What was annoying him at the moment was actually the sound of Kyouka laughing in the background, but he wasn't mad at Simon.

"No worries... really," Ari reassured Simon before helping him up, "I get that a lot,"

"He sure does!" Kyouka paused for a moment before she continued laughing.

After a few minutes Kyouka had finally grown tired of laughing, claiming that both her cheeks and stomach were sore from doing it so much. When the two defeated trainers paid the winners the prize money, everybody had returned their pokemon by then and was already in the process of introducing themselves.

When the small intros were done, Simon decided to ask some questions out of curiosity... because that's how he was, "So where you guys headed?"

"Gold Beach!"

"Newgate City," Ari replied a few seconds after Kyouka.

Simon was a bit surprised to hear two different answers, so out of curiosity and seeing nothing wrong with it he decided to ask, "Why?"

"I'm a coordinator, duh," Kyouka stated in an_ isn't-it-obvious _tone.

Ari seemed to hesitate for a few moments before answering, "Uh... I'm hoping to find a group in that city,"

"Group?" surprisingly enough it was Damon that questioned further, "Like the Plasma Corps? Or Rocket Rioters?"

Upon hearing that Ari chucked lightly in amusement, "Nah, of course not!" the mocha-skinned male rubbed the back of his head before he continued, "I have a problem see... and this organization called Fairy Tale might have the answer," Ari tried to sound as vague as possible, but not enough were they would have a reason to question him any further. He didn't really feel comfortable with sharing too much info on his goal... and kind of preferred to keep it a secret.

"Fairy Tale?" Simon questioned, the name seemed familiar but he couldn't place his tongue on it...

Kyouka rolled her eyes before refreshing Simon's memory, "The ones that focus on environmental friendly technology, ninja guy!"

"_Ooooh_, that Fairy Tale" Simon remembered now, his sister had talked about it once. To be honest he didn't remember exactly what she said as he had been doing something much more important at the time, but from what he remembered...

Nope, nothing.

Damon glared at the mocha-skinned male a bit more, wondering if he was lying or not before deciding it was the latter. The tall male still felt as if he was holding back some more info on them... but, well he couldn't blame him; Simon and himself were some guys he met a few minutes ago and who knows how long he's known that giant redhead girl. Ari probably didn't want to share too much of his plan here in Mobius and he was fine with that.

Suddenly a long, slightly uncomfortable pause filled the small group. Simon would try to start up some conversation every few moments, but it would turn out fruitless as Kyouka answered what should have been hours-worth of talking into a single, one word answer.

Damon was thinking more on Trident.

Ari was wondering when Kyouka would do like she usually did and state they would be leaving now, he felt slightly uncomfortable being around the taller of the two they just met... Damon, if he recalled correctly. His hopes that they would be leaving rose up when the redhead giant opened her mouth to speak; Ari would regret letting Kyouka speak the next few words for the rest of the day.

Kyouka grinned lightly, "Hey, how about we travel together?"

"That seems like a good idea," Simon didn't even think of rejecting the offer. Every group needed a chick, even if that chick was freakishly tall. While the self-proclaimed ninja was also fond of the thought of simple, sensei and student time he also wanted to have someone to fool around and joke with on this journey; to be honest he was already starting to like this Kyouka girl, after all she thought he was a real ninja! That alone was enough to put someone on his good list.

Ari shrugged, "I see no problem with that," he replied casually, "But I wouldn't like for us to feel like a bother to them, so what do you say?" The mocha-skinned trainer turned to look at Damon, he didn't want to seem rude by rejecting the offer since it wasn't in his nature. Ari was sure that the guy felt as uncomfortable as himself was right now, so he decided to let him reject the idea.

But he wouldn't mind traveling with them, especially Simon, who seemed to be very knowledgeable on Mobius. Ever since he got here Ari had been looking for someone that knew Mobius very well, he learned soon enough that Kyouka wasn't that person despite being a native to Mobius. To be honest going to Newgate City was his resort plan if he couldn't find anything less... let's say dangerous. This region held a lot of secrets, maybe one of them would lead him to his goal...

With mostly everyone fine with the idea it seemed Damon was the only one who seemed to hesitate to give his answer. He didn't see anything wrong with traveling in a larger group, Damon might seem like a lone wolf but that was mostly because the tall male missed out on a lot of the years he was supposed to be sharpening his social skills. He had also heard groups of this size were a lot easier to travel with, so logically speaking there wasn't much reason he would say no.

Kyouka was likeable enough, but what was hesitating on saying a yes was her traveling partner; Ari. In all honestly Damon wasn't sure what to think of him, he didn't seem like a bad guy but the taller male was questioning if this person was someone he could trust to watch his back or count on in the future. While everyone in the group had pretty much the same goal and that was to travel the region, Ari seemed to be in a different page from the rest of them.

But still...

"...Sure," Damon finally spoke nonchantly after a long pause. Upon hearing that both Simon and Kyouka jumped up in glee before doing what looked like some strange, complicated handshake; seeing the scene made him smile a bit, it seemed the two would naturally get along.

The tall trainer turned to look at Ari, who had a small smile on his face; this caused the mocha-skinned trainer's senses to perk up as he noticed Damon looking at him, in which return he chucked lightly before extending his hand towards the taller male, "Looking forward to traveling with ya, Damon,"

Damon looked at the extended hand for a few moments, a solemn look was on his face before he shook it with his own hand, "Yeah," the tall male replied bluntly, "Same here,"

**A few more miles back: 9:00**

"...so warm," Leo muttered under his breathe while hugging... something. He didn't really care about what it was; it smelled nice and felt very soft. Though he couldn't help but feel slight deisha vu... Leo could swear he's been in a situation like this one before, but for some reason this felt... different. Well the thing he was hugging felt different.

"...Hey, Leo" Liz shook her childhood friend, a slightly annoyed look on her face as she attempted to wake him up per request of Midori.

"Leave me alone, Annie,"

"I'm not Annie,"

"Leave me alone, Mum,"

"I'm not your mother, dumbass," Liz spoke in a more annoyed tone.

"Leave me alone... Asuka?"

Liz couldn't help but face palm, wondering how on earth this guy could have gotten permission to travel all over region, "Remember that time you peed your pants back in that field trip?"

As soon he heard that Leo shot up, letting go of whatever he was hugging before shouting, "LIZ!" the male got up looked at his blonde friend, a slightly angered look on his face, "Sssh! Thank Arceus Ro and Midori aren't here,"

Time seemed to freeze for a moment as someone coughed, so they could get his attention, "... you peed your pants?" Midori looked at Leo with a questionable look through her glasses; she couldn't help but feel slightly grossed out from hearing that.

Ro, who stood right beside her a few inches away, couldn't help but giggle lightly under her breathe.

Though he felt embarrassed that they heard of his little accident that had occurred a few years back, his thoughts quickly went towards the fact that everyone seemed changed and ready to start walking again when the moment called for it; their hair was done, clothes seemed clean and the like, "When did you guys wake up?"

Before anyone could answer Bulbasaur, who had gotten out of his pokeball and gone with Leo in the middle of the night, scurried towards Midori before cuddling her left foot very affectionately; seemingly happy to see his trainer.

Midori pushed her glasses up with a finger before answering the question, "We woke up around seven, some a tad later than others,"

"I cooked breakfast!" Ro stated happily.

Liz grinned upon hearing the shorter blonde, "I ate that breakfast,"

"Oh,"

"Well, let's going shall we?" Liz suddenly spoke up before turning around and walking away, leaving Leo all by himself as the other two females followed her.

"W-wait for me!" Leo suddenly shouted and looked around desperately, "I'll just put on my jacket and sleeping bag away,"

Liz either didn't hear her childhood friend or didn't care, because she just kept walking while both Midori and Ro followed right behind her.

While shoving his sleeping bag into his backpack, Leo got a look at a pokeball that was all the way at the bottom; reminding him that he had gone ahead and caught Starly without really thinking about it. He was slightly annoyed that he had used up all his pokeballs in attempts to capture the bird pokemon, as Ro refused to stay still when it got ahold of one of her fingers, but what worried him the most was the fact it was a starly...

"Well... I'll just release it I guess," it would be later though, since right he was just trying to get his stuff all together and catch up with his group. After it had turned dark yesterday everyone had decide to go into the forest and find some clearing they could sleep in; Ro cooked dinner and apparently breakfest too, which he was glad but a part of him couldn't help but miss his mom's cooking...

It wasn't great, but it was good.

Shaking his head, Leo put on his backpack once he managed to put his sleeping bag away before running in the direction his group was walking in.

**I had a serious case of writer's block and busy with irl stuff. Sorry for the late release, I could have written more but I just want to go ahead and start a new chapter.**

**Next time everyone finally arrives at Gold Beach, and the chapter should be a lot longer and released sooner(hopefully). Last set of Ocs will be making an intro, too, so look forward to that.**


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